- OpenAI has confirmed that it will be launching its episodic search product for a limited group of users.
- The testing-stage search product will compete with Google's Search Generative Experience and Perplexity's AI.
- The announcement shows OpenAI going after Google, which controls about 90% of the search market.
It's official — OpenAI is coming to Google Lunch.
The AI company on Thursday unveiled “SearchGPT,” an early version of a search product that brings it one step closer to launching its own search engine.
“We are testing SearchGPT, a preliminary prototype of a new AI search capability that delivers fast, timely answers from clear, relevant sources,” OpenAI said in a blog post.
The company said it plans to roll out the tool to a small number of users to get feedback and then integrate some version of the experience into ChatGPT. You can book your spot on the waitlist by clicking “Join the waitlist” on the site.
After the announcement, CEO Sam Altman posted to X that “we have a lot of room to make search a lot better than it is today,” adding that he was surprised at how much better search is than “plain old search.”
In the video included with the post, SearchGPT has a search bar centered on the screen, making it similar to Google's search experience. But there are some key differences: In the example shown, it appears to provide more concise answers than traditional Google, with a summarized answer and link included at the bottom. It also shows limited results, unlike Google, which has a page of related links.
This is intentional, according to the company's announcement: OpenAI said in a blog post that “getting answers on the web takes a lot of effort” and that it often takes multiple tries “to get relevant results.”
“We believe that by leveraging real-time information from the web to enhance the conversational capabilities of our models, we can help you find what you're looking for faster and easier,” the company said in a statement.
You can also clarify your question following the SearchGPT results, or click the button on the left to see a longer list of websites related to your query.
In the example search for “music festivals in Boone, NC in August,” a follow-up question about whether one of the events is family-friendly provides a clear answer.
But as multiple journalists pointed out, the demo wasn't all that accurate: Tool had incorrectly listed the dates for one of the festivals, as well as another festival taking place a two-hour drive away from Boone.
“This is an early prototype and we will continue to improve it,” an OpenAI spokesperson told The Atlantic, which reported on the issue.
OpenAI is targeting Google
With SearchGPT, OpenAI is explicitly positioning itself to compete with Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) and the search features of AI startup Perplexity.
Google's SGE also provides users with AI-generated summaries of search results, but the feature is not yet available to the public and is in testing. Alphabet's shares fell 2% within an hour of the announcement.
The search feature can search the web in real time and automatically summarize results from Microsoft's Bing, which has partnered with OpenAI and invested billions in the company.
SearchGPT will also allow users to connect with publishers by citing and linking with “clear, in-line, named attribution and links,” the announcement said. This feature will help users understand the source of information and give them access to more results in a linked sidebar.
There's a lot of revenue in search, and Google is the undisputed leader: The majority of Google's revenue comes from its search business, which generated $175 billion in revenue last year, up from $162.45 billion in 2022, according to the company's annual report.
The Department of Justice recently said in closing arguments in its antitrust case against Google that the company also controls about 90% of the search market.
By comparison, Microsoft's Bing has a 5.5% share of the search market, the Justice Department said.But Microsoft appears serious about its AI search ambitions.
Microsoft unveiled AI-powered Bing in February of last year, when CEO Satya Nadella said at the time that “AI will fundamentally change every software category, including the largest category: search.”
OpenAI's announcement comes after The Information reported in February that the company had been quietly developing its own web search product.
OpenAI did not immediately respond to Business Insider's request for comment.
