OpenAI recently announced its entry into the Internet search market with the SearchGPT engine. The first 10,000 users will experience this new product of OpenAI for free. With many outstanding features, SearchGPT is expected to redistribute the market share of the global search market – a threat that Google needs to be wary of.
OpenAI recently announced an AI-powered search engine with real-time access to the internet called SearchGPT. The launch of this tool aims to provide users with “fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.”
New tool developed by OpenAI
When accessed, users will see a large dialog box with the question: “What are you looking for?”. However, unlike Googles, SearchGPT does not return a list of links but rather organizes and summarizes the content. In addition, this tool also has a feature called “visual answers”. However, OpenAI has not officially described this feature.
SearchGPT’s conversational search interface
According to OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood, shared with The Verge: SearchGPT is currently just a “prototype” and is only accessible to 10,000 test users at launch. Open AI continues to work with third-party partners and uses live content feeds to build its search results. The ultimate goal is to integrate live search features into ChatGPT.
The core technology is the biggest difference between SearchGPT and Google Search. OpenAI uses the GPT-4 large language model, while Google provides search results based on its web ranking algorithm and machine learning technology. SearchGPT provides an interactive, conversational interface, while Google Search uses a traditional interface with a list of links.
SearchGPT Could Be a Worthy Competitor to GoogleAI
The launch of SearchGPT will “ignite” a direct threat to Google, as the world’s largest search engine has been aggressively integrating AI features into its search engine for fear that users will switch to competitors. AI Overview was launched by Google in May, but has only been used by a small group of users and has faced strong criticism for returning meaningless or inaccurate results using the AI feature.
To avoid similar troubles, OpenAI says SearchGPT was developed in collaboration with a variety of News partners, including the owners of the WSJ, AP, and The Verge.
As of June this year, Statcounter data shows that Google Search is dominating the search market with over 91% global market share. Followed by tools from Yahoo, Baodu and DuckduckGo. The appearance of OpenAI will most likely have some impact on Google’s market share in the search market in the near future.
Google Search is still temporarily dominating the search market.
OpenAI is also struggling internally financially as it may soon run out of money for AI training. Based on internal financial documents related to OpenAI, 7 billion USD is the amount the company is on track to spend on model training alone, and $1.5 billion on personnel. That far outpaces rivals like Amazon-backed Anthropic, which is expected to spend $2.7 billion on similar activities this year. The skyrocketing operating costs could leave OpenAI with a $5 billion loss by 2024.
Although it is currently free for early adopters and does not run ads, OpenAI will need to figure out how to make money through SearchGPT soon to make up for the revenue shortfall.
Epilogue:
With SearchGPT, OpenAI has officially joined the race of technology giants in the global Internet search market. With outstanding features that are still being developed by OpenAI, SearchGPT promises users the opportunity to “search in a more natural and intuitive way”. This is truly a big threat to Google’s dominant search engine and can open up a relentless war between the world’s most formidable opponents in the field of Artificial Intelligence technology.
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