OpenAI Tests Generative AI Search Engine

SearchGPT is designed to act as a conversational partner for sifting through the internet for answers, with usage resembling interacting with ChatGPT or other generative AI chatbots. Users type in their question and receive a narrative answer. For instance, if someone asks for the best tomatoes to grow in a given area (one of the questions featured in OpenAI’s announcement), they’ll receive a list of suitable varieties, a description of the varieties, and links for further information. Users can ask the search engine follow-up questions, and the response will consider the context from the previous question.

Currently in its prototype phase, OpenAI is testing the tool with a group of 10,000 users (anyone can sign up to the waitlist to test). Industry observers have suggested that the choice to describe the tool’s initial roll-out as a prototype is a canny decision, given the problems with accuracy and plagiarism that have shadowed the respective generative AI search tools from Google and US tech company Perplexity. To further bolster its credibility, OpenAI partnered with news organisations including The Wall Street Journal, Associated Press and Vox Media. These companies will be able to manage how they’re presented within SearchGPT, and can choose to appear as either contextual links or in-text responses.

While some herald SearchGPT as a challenge to Google’s dominance, it also signals the expansion of the chatbot search engine format, which is expected to balloon in popularity.