Is this the beginning of the end for Google? The new search engine developed by OpenAI represents a serious threat to the online search champion. Called SearchGPT, it will offer answers to users’ questions that integrate elements of the GPT-4 generative artificial intelligence (AI) model, as well as information collected directly from the Internet.
Unlike ChatGPT, which only produces written answers without references, SearchGPT will offer links to third-party sites, which have served as sources. These links will be summarized, sorted and classified according to their relevance, to answer the queries as precisely as possible. For now, SearchGPT is only a prototype and only 10,000 people have access to try it out. However, this number should gradually increase, since it is possible to register for a waiting list on the OpenAI website.
SearchGPT “is designed to help users connect with content creators by prominently citing and including links” to sites, says a blog post from the startup. OpenAI also says it has formed partnerships with content publishers, who can thus choose how they will appear in a response to a query. The agency’s content Associated Press and the company News Corp, owner of the Wall Street Journal and Times British, for example, can be used to develop the SearchGPT interface, having signed an agreement with OpenAI.
Bad news for Google
However, sites will be able to appear in the search engine even if their creators have not given their authorization. This situation has divided the press world since the launch of ChatGPT in 2022. Some media, such as the New York Timeshave filed a lawsuit against the startup, which they accuse of feeding their articles to their AI models without consent, credit or compensation.
In the long term, SearchGPT should be integrated into ChatGPT. A strategy that could well steal market share from Google, which has reigned supreme in this sector for many years and is trying as best it can to position itself on artificial intelligence. The giant notably presented AI Overviews, its search engine integrating AI, last May. But the results have not been there. Observers have been concerned to see the new search engines only include a few links and sources, at the risk of weakening the rest of the ecosystem. Not to mention the insufficient quarterly performance of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, aggravated by the announcement of OpenAI. Alphabet’s share price lost 2.99% on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, July 25, after having already dropped more than 5% on Wednesday.
Initial reactions mixed
Moreover, as with AI Overviews or Bing AI, Microsoft’s search engine, the first tests are proving inconclusive. The newspaper The Atlantic, who has been able to try SearchGPT, reports erroneous information in the results. In a video presentation, OpenAI uses the following example: “music festivals in Boone, North Carolina in August.” The search engine then offers a list of festivals in that location and time period. The first is called “An Appalachian Summer Festival” and holds arts events from July 29 to August 16. But a few more searches by The Atlantic show that the festival starts on June 29 and ends on July 27. In fact, the dates mentioned by SearchGPT are those of the closing of the ticket office. So OpenAI still has a long way to go if it wants to offer a credible and serious search tool. Because to revolutionize the online search habits of millions of consumers, it is still necessary to be able to ensure the reliability of the information offered.
The other big challenge for OpenAI will be funding. The company has nearly 200 million users each month, but its training and inference costs – related to each response generated by the model – are exploding. According to the media The Informationthey would have reached 7 billion dollars this year.
While SearchGPT is currently free and ad-free, OpenAI will quickly need to find new revenue streams to offset these exorbitant costs and remain profitable in the long term.