As the race for artificial intelligence dominance continues, OpenAI is planning to launch a new AI-powered search engine next Monday – just a day before Google holds its I/O conference, where it is expected to announce a raft of new AI features.
The tactical launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT-like search engine will only aggravate the longstanding rivalry between the AI powerhouse and the king of search, and will also place it in direct competition with existing AI search engines, like $1 billion AI search startup Perplexity AI.
The new search tool will work in a similar way to ChatGPT, but will use insights from Microsoft Bing to present users with up-to-date information and citations from the web. If you’re interested in learning more about OpenAI’s foray into search, read on to learn about OpenAI’s new search engine, including how it may differ from its biggest competitor, Google Search.
The AI research lab’s announcement confirmed rumors circulating Silicon Valley for months, after the company recently ramped up its hiring effort, and a Reddit user spotted SSL certificates for a new domain, “search.chatgpt.com”.
OpenAI’s product diversification comes after a successful few months for its flagship chatbot ChatGPT. The AI tool’s traffic numbers have finally returned to its 2023 peak of ~180 million, after a period of fluctuation driven by growing competition from ChatGPT alternatives. But despite its dominance over the chatbot market, the adoption of AI features by popular information retrieval tools like Google has pushed OpenAI to launch its own alternative.
But how will OpenAI’s new search engine work? And what will differentiate it from the leading web-based search engines?
What Is OpenAI’s New Search Engine, and How Might It Alter From Google?
According to recent reports, OpenAI’s new tool will work in a similar way to ChatGPT, but will be able to pull real-time information and citations from the web, thanks to its partnership with Bing.
The search platform will also present users with images like traditional search engines. But instead of presenting images on a separate tab like Google, the tool will likely display them alongside text responses, akin to how established AI-search engines like Perplexity AI.
Crucially, OpenAI’s new search engine isn’t intended to replicate Google’s tried and tested format and instead aims to synthesize web-based information in a way that’s more useful to the user. It will do so by reverse engineering the search process, presenting users with the information they’re hoping to find first, rather than multiple pages of repetitive search results.
“Google shows you like 10 blue links, like 13 ads, and then 10 blue links, and that’s like one way to find information. But the thing that’s exciting to me is not that we can go build a better copy of Google Search, but that maybe there’s just a much better way to help people find, act on, and synthesise information,” – Sam Altman, CEO of Open AI
In a podcast with Lex Fridman, OpenAI Sam Altman explained that the AI search engine builds on the intersection of large language models (LLMs) and search, and aims to be better than Google by presenting information in a less “boring” manner.
Should Google Be Worried About OpenAI’s LLM Search Engine?
Despite OpenAI attesting that its new AI search tool isn’t designed to mimic Google, the upcoming release will, once again, place OpenAI in direct competition with the search behemoth – but should Google be concerned?
With Google owning over 91% of the global search engine market share in 2024, its monopoly on the market is undisputed. However, despite Google being the first port of call for most netizens, the way that users are answering queries is evolving, and it is unclear whether the search engine is doing enough to secure its position in the long term.
Not only have 10% of Gen Zers turned to TikTok to access information over Google, but OpenAI’s powerful alliance with Microsoft is mounting further pressure on the search tool, with Microsoft choosing to integrate OpenAI’s powerful GPT model into its Bing search engine last year.
Google isn’t taking the fight lying down though. The company has been working on an AI-powered search engine, Search Generative Experience (SGE), since last year. Its also been making continual improvements to its own AI chatbot Gemni – launching a Pro 1.5 version last month with enhanced coding and processing capabilities.
See how Google’s chatbot compares to OpenAI’s frontrunner in our ChatGPT vs Gemini guide.
