• OpenAI intends to unveil its AI-powered search product on Monday, upping the ante in its rivalry with search giant Google, according to two people familiar with the situation.
  • OpenAI’s search product is an extension of its flagship ChatGPT product and enables ChatGPT to pull in direct information from the Web and include citations.
  • OpenAI previously attempted to give ChatGPT access to live web data via ChatGPT plugins, which have since been retired in favour of GPTs.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI is developing a search product that could potentially take on Alphabet’s Google as well as well-funded AI search startup Perplexity, according to reports from Bloomberg and the Information.

OpenAI’s search product

OpenAI’s search product is an addition to its flagship ChatGPT product according to Bloomberg, allowing ChatGPT to retrieve direct Web information along with citations. OpenAI’s chatbot product, ChatGPT, generates responses to text prompts that resemble those of a human using the company’s state-of-the-art AI models.

Industry observers have long referred to ChatGPT as a substitute for obtaining online data, even though it has had difficulty delivering precise and current Web data. Previously, OpenAI integrated it with Microsoft Bing for subscribers who paid for access. Google, meanwhile, has revealed generative AI capabilities for its engine bearing the same name.

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Perplexity

A former OpenAI researcher founded the $1 billion startup Perplexity, which has gained popularity by offering an AI-native search interface that displays citations in results and images in addition to text in its responses. Ten million people use it each month, as per a blog post the startup published in January.

ChatGPT status quo

After its launch in late 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT product was dubbed the fastest application to ever reach 100 million monthly active users. However, according to analytics firm Similarweb, global traffic to ChatGPT’s website has been volatile over the past year and is only now reaching its May 2023 peak. As a result, the AI company is facing pressure to grow its user base.

ChatGPT plugins, an earlier attempt to incorporate current and real-world data into ChatGPT, were retired in April, as per a help centre article on OpenAI’s website.