OpenAI brings search features to ChatGPT to challenge Google

OpenAI said Thursday that an option called ChatGPT Search will allow chatbot users to search for timely information just like on the web and receive responses with inline attribution to news publishers and data sources. other material. The company launched a product prototype in July called SearchGPT, separate from the ChatGPT app and available only to a limited number of users.

The new search capabilities, using OpenAI’s 4o model, will start working with paid ChatGPT Plus and Team users on Thursday for mobile and web. OpenAI’s enterprise and education customers will be able to access the features in the coming weeks and free users sometime in the coming months.

After ChatGPT’s viral success in late 2022, tech companies raced to incorporate synthetic AI into a long list of services, including online search. OpenAI advocate Microsoft Corporation and Google have overhaul their search products to include more conversational AI features. Perplexity, a rival AI search startup, is currently in early talks to raise capital at a $9 billion valuation, Bloomberg previously reported. With ChatGPT Search, OpenAI is ready to bring similar AI search functionality to the 250 million people who use chatbots every week.

Alphabet shares fell more than 1% on Thursday following the news.

“People want answers when they search for things, and finding answers on the Internet is very difficult these days. It takes multiple searches and you have to go through a bunch of links,” Varun Shetty, head of media partnerships at OpenAI, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “We think being able to ask in a conversational way with all the relevant context and high-quality sources on the other side makes this experience better.”

In a pre-release demo, OpenAI’s team used this feature to ask ChatGPT about weekend events in San Francisco. This app displays a summary list of activities taken from local news websites. For the next question about finding restaurants, ChatGPT offers a map listing local eateries. While ChatGPT previously included some citations in its responses, the new search feature displays summaries of sources and image previews more prominently.

OpenAI has laid the foundation for its search offering through growing numbers Licensing agreement with publisherinclude News companyAxel Springer SE, Time magazine as well as European media companies such as Le Monde. Partnerships enable OpenAI to bring more authoritative, up-to-date information to its products. OpenAI said it incorporated feedback from publisher partners for ChatGPT Search on how the chatbot decides which articles are most relevant and determines the summary and citation length for articles.

“We believe that AI search in the near future and for the next generations will be the primary way to access information and partnering with OpenAI puts Le Monde at the forefront of this change,” Louis DreyfusLe Monde’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

OpenAI said its tool will not favor news publishers that partner with the company. It says any site or publisher can choose to appear in ChatGPT Search. The company also wants to make sure its search product is useful to people looking for information beyond obscure news.

“Search is a huge space and this is our first foray into it,” Shetty said. “We will need to spend a lot of time improving the experience and focusing on shopping, travel, local – all of these verticals are important.”

However, like all general AI products, OpenAI faces the risk that its new search engine could generate wrong answers to questions. For example, after SearchGPT was introduced in July, the reporter noted that the product demo had the wrong date for the festival.

The stakes are especially high for OpenAI and its rivals to provide accurate information about next week’s US election. Starting on election day, OpenAI said ChatGPT users asking about voting results will see a message encouraging them to check news sources like the Associated Press and Reuters, as well as state or local election boards. their direction.

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