OpenAI Could Soon Challenge Google With AI-Powered Search Engine; Here’s What It Would Look Like

By Madz Dizon

May 08, 2024 02:43 AM EDT

OpenAI Could Soon Challenge Google With AI-Powered Search Engine; Here’s What It Would Look Like — A photo taken on October 4, 2023 in Manta, near Turin, shows a smartphone displaying the logo of the artificial intelligence OpenAI research laboratory.
(Photo : MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

OpenAI, known for its powerful language models like ChatGPT, is now preparing to venture into the search engine industry.

The IT company is currently working on a new feature for ChatGPT. This feature will enable ChatGPT to search the web for answers and provide citations, similar to Google Search.

OpenAI Develops ChatGPT Search Engine

According to an insider who requested anonymity to discuss private information, the functionality would allow users to ask ChatGPT a question and receive answers that employ web specifics with citations to sources such as Wikipedia pages and blog posts.

When appropriate, one version of the offering employs visuals in addition to written solutions to queries. If a user asks ChatGPT how to change a doorknob, for example, the responses may contain a diagram to help them understand the process, according to Bloomberg.

On social media, there has been a lot of conjecture about OpenAI's search plans. Some users on X, formerly known as Twitter, have pointed to the existence of the website search.chatgpt.com as evidence that OpenAI may be developing a search tool.

Visitors to that URL will see a "not found" statement in small font on the page, but over the weekend, it was temporarily redirected to chatgpt.com, the official website where users can communicate with the chatbot.

Perplexity: ChatGPT-Styled Future of OpenAI's Search

OpenAI might develop its own search engine while continuing to fuel Microsoft's Bing and Copilot.

According to Windows Central, Perplexity is another tool that integrates OpenAI's GPT technology with real-time data, although it works in a fundamentally different way than Bing.

Perplexity appears considerably more like ChatGPT than Bing, with a chatbot UI that an inexperienced eye could mistake for ChatGPT.

In addition to Perplexity's layout being similar to ChatGPT, Perplexity's mission is more aligned with the goals of OpenAI and ChatGPT.