In a significant move that could challenge Google’s control over the $200 billion search market, ChatGPT maker OpenAI announced a new AI-powered search engine, SearchGPT.

In a blog post, the company stated that it is testing 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.”

Currently, the prototype is accessible to only a small group of users, but the company plans to integrate its capabilities into ChatGPT in the future. 

AI revolution

Since the unveiling of ChatGPT in 2022, tech companies have been exploring various use cases of generative AI that could be integrated into the everyday tech ecosystem of users. With generative AI’s abilities to generate answers and parse through vast amounts of content – search would appear to be a natural progression for most. Nearly a year later, AI-powered search engines like Perplexity and Sam Altman’s SearchGPT are set to revolutionise the search engine ecosystem. With this users will be able to receive fast and efficient answers to their internet searches without parsing through multiple links for their desired results. 

Traditional search engines like Google and even Microsoft, which is partnered with OpenAI have been gradually incorporating AI-powered search. However, experts believe that their adoption of the new technology has been slow especially as it is in direct contravention to their existing business model. At this point Google has nearly 80 per cent of the market share of the search business, making it the undisputed market leader.

An expert working at a major tech consultancy told businessline, “Google generates the majority of its revenue through advertising on its search platform. By incorporating AI into search and efficiently generating single answers it is cutting down on that revenue stream.”

At Google I/O in May 2024, Google unveiled AI capabilities for search, including an AI overview that will give quick overview answers to your queries. OpenAI’s entry into the market will further motivate Google to innovate to compete and be relevant. 

Pareekh Jain, a tech analyst, believes that whether SearchGPT will be able to challenge Google’s monopoly will depend on two factors: “SearchGPT will have to revolutionise the efficiency of search engines but motivate users to move away from Google, a known entity in search. SearchGPT’s success could mean Google’s demise because a search market is usually a winner-take-all market and a single search engine holds monopoly.”

With SearchGPT, OpenAI will enhance the conversational capabilities of its models with real-time information from the web, making search faster and easier. “SearchGPT will quickly and directly respond to your questions with up-to-date information from the web while giving you clear links to relevant sources,” said OpenAI in a blog post.

OpenAI has also partnered with publishers and is giving them a way 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,” said the company