OpenAI can challenge Google and confusion with AI-powered search: reports

Already highly regarded in the red-hot artificial intelligence space, OpenAI may be working on an AI-powered search engine to challenge tech titan Google, as well as web-savvy AI tool Perplexity.

The future of online information discovery is emerging from rumors and insider tips. The first hints emerged in February, when it was reported that OpenAI was developing a search app aimed at Google's core competencies.

If true, it's clear that the company is breaking away from its current relationship with Microsoft in order to use Bing to use the chatGPT web. Bing uses Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to improve responses by folding data from web searches into GPT-4 chatbot responses – a huge benefit in terms of data currency.

Recently, a well-known leaker name in the AI ​​space, Jimmy Apples, asserted that OpenAI will soon announce a new search engine. Citing new domain name registrations from chatgpt.com, the Mountain View, Calif.-based firm said it is preparing to showcase this new capability.

“May 10th, 9th for OpenAI event, may not be model release but search engine announcement.” on Tuesday.

Ashutosh Shrivastava—another Twitter user who is active in the AI ​​community, also said that OpenAI was very active in a new subdomain called search.chatgpt.com.

“OpenAI's latest SSL certificate logs have revealed something interesting: the domain (search-dot-chatgpt-dot-com) may indicate that OpenAI is developing a search function.”

A standard WHOIS domain registry search confirms that the subdomain exists, but attempts to locate it have failed.

Jimmy Apples also said that OpenAI may be testing additional features or AI models.

As of April 24th, I count at least 50+ new async subdomains,” he tweeted.

Web search and AI

Until the explosion of consumer-ready AI tools like ChatGPT, Google was the king of search, providing a mainstream way for people to find information online. But its niche is being challenged as users become more comfortable asking a chatbot for answers instead of doing a Google search.

For some, the shift can't come soon enough, as Google's search results are becoming cluttered with paid placements and pages just to attract search traffic.

On the other hand, the currency and completeness of information provided by AI models is often a weakness of chatbots – also tools intended to make the smartphone obsolete. The release of two high-profile AI gadgets in the past month – the Human AI Pin and the Rabbit R1 – have shown the limitations of this over-the-top approach to ubiquitous computing.

Some companies are combining AI and search. Confusion is an AI-powered search engine that has built a reputation in the AI ​​space and received significant investments from Nvidia and Jeff Bezos. Recently, Microsoft—OpenAI's lead investor—banned its employees from using Perplexity for security reasons. And while its reach is small compared to tools from OpenAI, Google and Microsoft, Perplexity is currently seeing historic levels of interest, according to Google Trends.

If OpenAI were to develop a native GPT-powered search engine, it would go head-to-head with Google Search, which has owned this vital aspect of the Internet since its launch in 1998. AI-powered search engines.

Marketing platform Semrush estimates that 5.9 million Google searches are performed every minute, which adds up to 8.5 billion per day, or 3.1 trillion searches per year. Just 17 months old, ChatGPT currently has about 1.6 billion visits per month, while Perplexity is used by 10 million people every month.

In a recent podcast with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Lex Friedman hinted at OpenAI's desire to reinvent web search.

“The intersection of LLMs and search, I don't think anyone has cracked the code yet,” he said. “I'd love to go that way. I think it was good. “

So far, there has been no official announcement from OpenAI about the search engine development, and OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request from Decrypt Comments. But based on the founders' enthusiasm for the space, it's likely a new AI search engine.