- OpenAI plans to announce its artificial intelligence-powered search product on Monday, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
- The announcement raises the stakes in OpenAI’s competition with Google, the king of search engines.
- The timing of the announcement, which is subject to change, could be a day before Google’s annual I/O conference where the tech giant is expected to unveil a slew of AI-related products.
OpenAI is set to announce a new AI-powered search product on Monday that aims to compete with Google Search, according to two sources familiar with the matter. This new announcement raises the stakes in the search engine competition between Google and OpenAI.
Announcement Details
The announcement date, while subject to change, has not been previously reported. It is scheduled a day before Google’s annual I/O developer conference starts on Tuesday. At Google I/O, the company is expected to debut many new AI products of their own.
OpenAI’s new search offering will likely be an extension of their popular ChatGPT chatbot. It will enable ChatGPT to pull in direct information from the web and include citations, per reports. ChatGPT uses OpenAI’s advanced natural language AI to generate human-like text.
Competition in AI Search
Experts have long seen ChatGPT as an alternative for gathering online information, though it has struggled to provide fully accurate and real-time web results. OpenAI gave ChatGPT integration with Microsoft Bing for paid subscribers. Google has also announced new generative AI features for its core search engine.
Perplexity, an AI search startup with $1 billion valuation, was founded by a former OpenAI researcher. It has gained users through an AI-native search interface showing citations, images, and text. Perplexity says it now has 10 million monthly active users.
ChatGPT’s Own User Base
ChatGPT became the fastest app to ever hit 100 million monthly active users after launching in late 2022. However, its website traffic has fluctuated over the past year based on analytics firm Similarweb. OpenAI faces pressure to expand ChatGPT’s user base.
Past Attempts at Web Integration
An earlier try at bringing updated, real-world information into ChatGPT called ChatGPT Plugins was retired in April according to OpenAI’s help center.
Conclusion
OpenAI’s upcoming announcement promises to shake up the AI search space and intensify its competition with Google. It remains to be seen how OpenAI will leverage ChatGPT to create a compelling search alternative. With other players like Perplexity in the mix, the AI search race is clearly heating up.
