SAN FRANCISCO: OpenAI has folded a search engine into its ChatGPT chatbox.
On Thursday, the artificial intelligence start-up unveiled what it called “ChatGPT search.” OpenAI said the latest version of its online chatbot can access and deliver information from across the Internet in real-time, including news, stock prices and sports scores.
Other tech companies, including giants like Google and Microsoft, as well as start-ups like the San Francisco-based Perplexity, have offered similar technologies. These services augment traditional Internet search engines with chatbot technology that generates text as a way of answering questions and summarising online information.
OpenAI said this summer that it was testing a system that combined search engine technology with ChatGPT, which launched the AI boom when it was released in November 2022. The chatbot now has over 250 million active monthly users, according to the company.
How it works
The new search engine is available for people who use ChatGPT Plus, which is available for a $20 a month subscription fee. OpenAI will roll out the new technology to those using the free version of the chatbot “over the coming months.” OpenAI said its new technology would respond to questions with up-to-date information from the web while also providing links to relevant sources. For instance, if someone asks the result of the last World Series game and ChatGPT provides the final score, it might link to a news article.
“ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before,” OpenAI said in a blog post. “You can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for.” Chatbots such as ChatGPT, however, are prone to mistakes and sometimes make up information — a phenomenon that scientists call “hallucination.” This can happen even when chatbots access information from across the Internet.
OpenAI said that publishers like Reuters and The Associated Press have partnered with the company on the new product.
The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, claiming copyright infringement of news content related to AI systems. The two companies have denied the suit’s claims.
More questions
The launch will raise more questions about the start-up's link to Microsoft, a major OpenAI investor, which is also trying to expand the reach of its search engine against Google with its Copilot AI.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said he wants to grow his company into an Internet behemoth.
He successfully catapulted the company to a staggering $157 billion valuation in a recent round of fundraising that included Microsoft, Tokyo-based conglomerate SoftBank and AI chip maker Nvidia as investors.
Enticing new users with search engine capabilities will only increase the company's enormous computing needs and costs, which are enormous.
— The New York Times
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