OpenAI Rolls Out AI-Powered Web Search for All Users, Intensifying Competition with Google
OpenAI has announced a significant upgrade to its ChatGPT service, now making its AI-powered internet search available to all users, a move that ramps up competition with Google’s longstanding dominance in the search engine market.
Previously exclusive to paying subscribers, this search functionality is now accessible to free users, enabling them to gather real-time information from across the web. The feature allows ChatGPT to provide users with fast, up-to-date answers, complete with relevant web sources, a capability once reliant on traditional search engines like Google.
Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s chief product officer, confirmed the news in a YouTube video, stating, “We’re bringing search to all logged-in free users of ChatGPT. This will be available globally on every platform where you use ChatGPT.”
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The new interface resembles Google’s search results but stands out with its cleaner, ad-free presentation. It also shares similarities with Perplexity, another AI-powered search engine, known for providing conversational search results and citing sources for transparency.
Adam Fry, the product lead for ChatGPT Search, explained the motivation behind the upgrade: “We’re making the ChatGPT experience you know better by integrating up-to-date information from the web.”
This announcement marks a major step in OpenAI’s efforts to expand its AI capabilities. With web search now integrated directly into ChatGPT, users can choose to activate the feature via a search icon or have it enabled by default.
The addition addresses a longstanding limitation for AI chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude, which previously could not provide real-time information due to time cutoffs in their data. Until now, users had to rely on separate search engines like Google to access current and web-based content.
This upgrade is especially noteworthy considering OpenAI’s partnership with Microsoft, a key investor in the company, which is actively working to increase the reach of its Bing search engine to compete with Google. The integration of web search into ChatGPT could foster even deeper ties between OpenAI and Microsoft, positioning both companies to challenge Google’s dominance in the search domain.
Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, has been working to position the company as a major internet player, as evidenced by its recent $157 billion valuation. The funding round that contributed to this valuation included investments from Microsoft, SoftBank, and Nvidia, underscoring the growing interest in AI technologies and their potential to reshape industries.
