OpenAI Launches SearchGPT To Challenge Google’s Dominance

OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, is entering the domain dominated by Google by introducing a search tool named SearchGPT to provide an alternative to Google search.

OpenAI and Google are already the top contenders in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) space with ChatGPT and Gemini trying to win more users.

Announcing the launch of the tool on Thursday, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman said the company wanted to make search better than it is currently.

“We think there is room to make search much better than it is today. We are launching a new prototype called SearchGPT. We will learn from the prototype, make it better, and then integrate the tech into ChatGPT to make it real-time and maximally helpful,” Altman said in a post on X.

The launch of SearchGPT announced on Thursday, also places the AI giant in competition with its largest backer Microsoft’s Bing search, and emerging services such as Perplexity which is a search-focused AI chatbot firm backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and semiconductor giant Nvidia.

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OpenAI said it has opened sign-ups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototype stage and is being tested with a small group of users and publishers.

“Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results. We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier,” OpenAI stated in a post on its website urging users to sign up to be on the waitlist for the tool.

According to web analytics firm Statcounter, Google dominates the search engine market with a 91.05% share as of June.

Microsoft’s Bing controls only 3.74% of the market, while Yandex and Yahoo Search account for 1.44% and 1.26% share of the market respectively.

Major search engines have been trying to integrate AI into search since ChatGPT first launched in November 2022.

Microsoft, through its early investment, adopted OpenAI technology for its Bing search engine, while Google rolled out AI-powered summaries for the wider public at its developer conference in May.

Meanwhile, the launch of OpenAI’s SearchGPT coincided with Google’s announcement of an upgrade to a free-tier experience to Gemini 1.5 Flash for quicker and more helpful responses.

According to Google, with Gemini 1.5 Flash, users would notice across-the-board improvements in quality and latency, with especially noticeable improvements in reasoning and image understanding.

“And just like we greatly expanded the context window of Gemini Advanced, we’re quadrupling Gemini’s to 32K tokens. That means you can have longer back-and-forth conversations and ask Gemini more complex questions — all free of charge,” the company stated in an announcement on Thursday.