OpenAI Starts Testing Its New Search Engine, SearchGPT

OpenAI is stepping into the search engine arena, a field traditionally led by Google, by introducing SearchGPT. This new AI-driven search engine offers users real-time internet information access, marking a significant move for OpenAI in expanding its technological offerings.

“We’re testing SearchGPT, a prototype of new search features designed to combine the strength of our AI models with information from the web to give you fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources,” OpenAI wrote in its blog.

“We’re launching to a small group of users and publishers to get feedback. While this prototype is temporary, we plan to integrate the best of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future.”

This development positions OpenAI as a competitor to its major supporter, Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Partnering with publishers and creators

“We are committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators,” wrote the AI giant.

“We hope to help users discover publisher sites and experiences, while bringing more choice to search. For decades, search has been a foundational way for publishers and creators to reach users. Now, we’re using AI to enhance this experience by highlighting high quality content in a conversational interface with multiple opportunities for users to engage.”

“AI search is going to become one of the key ways that people navigate the internet, and it’s crucial, in these early days, that the technology is built in a way that values, respects, and protects journalism and publishers. We look forward to partnering with OpenAI in the process, and creating a new way for readers to discover The Atlantic.”

Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic.

SearchGPT is designed to help users connect with publishers by prominently citing and linking to them in searches. Responses have clear, in-line, named attribution and links so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results in a sidebar with source links.

“We’ve partnered with publishers to build this experience and continue to seek their feedback. In addition to launching the SearchGPT prototype, we are also launching a way for publishers to manage how they appear in SearchGPT, so publishers have more choices. Importantly, SearchGPT is about search and is separate from training OpenAI’s generative AI foundation models. Sites can be surfaced in search results even if they opt out of generative AI training. To read more about publisher controls and OpenAI’s bots, see here(opens in a new window). 

“We’ve also heard from publishers and creators that they want to understand how best to engage with AI search products and how their content performs.”