Why There Have Been Rumours About a ChatGPT Search Engine That’ll be Live on 9 May 2024

By
Kimi Tan
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Google has dominated the search market more than two decades, accounting for 90% of all global searches.

However, we may soon be introduced to a strong new strong contender that threatens to dethrone Google as the king of search engines.

Recently, rumours about a ChatGPT search engine have been circulating online.

OpenAI Is Gearing Up For A Big Announcement 

Rumours say OpenAI could be launching a new search engine based on ChatGPT technology, and that an announcement of this will be made on 9 May.

Very little is known about the rumoured search engine, though it is believed to be based on asking questions and interacting with an AI model using natural language.

SearchGPT

The rumours came about due to a video preview of SearchGPT posted on X on 28 April.

SearchGPT is a browser extension that enhances search engines with the power of AI, though it got some thinking about whether OpenAI would incorporate AI and search engines into one product.

Registration Of Search.chatgpt.com

Additionally, the registration of search.chatgpt.com caused many to speculate that ChatGPT Search will be coming to us very soon.

Although, if you try searching that right now, you won’t get any results.

Image: Kimi Tan

When you consider all of these together, it indicates that OpenAI could be launching its new search engine this week.

Open AI CEO: ChatGPT Could Be The Future Of Search

During an interview with Lex Fridman last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman suggested that ChatGPT could be the future of search, with a deep integration between large language models (LLM) and search.

“If we can build a better search engine than Google then we should,” Altman said.

“Google shows you 13 ads and ten blue links, which is one way to find information, but the thing that is exciting to me is that maybe there is a much better way to help people find and act on information.

“Maybe it is interesting to say ‘How do we help you find the information you need, how do we help create that in some cases or point you to it in others’,” said Altman.

“The intersection of LLMs plus search I don’t think anyone has cracked the code on yet. I would love to go and do that, I think it would be cool,” he said.

Break Free From Bing

While there is some live search functionality built into ChatGPT through its partnership with Microsoft Bing, it’s more of an “add-on” than a deep integration.

Bing uses GPT-4 to provide search summaries to answer queries, but some in the industry say the Bing name is hindering OpenAI’s progress in a way.

Fair enough, because you’d definitely get lots of stares if you tell people you use Microsoft Bing at all. People might start asking if you enjoy senior benefits.

Some are saying ChatGPT Search could be a way for OpenAI to “break free” from the Bing name and gain greater recognition and usership.

What ChatGPT Search Could Look Like

Rumours suggest OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search will be similar to Google Gemini or Perplexity AI – built into ChatGPT but with more live data.

For example, a user could ask a question about the latest news or the top song on the billboard chart at the moment and ChatGPT Search would show the result without a lag.

This would solve one of the biggest problems of LLMs right now – their cut-off dates for information.

If you’ve tried to search recent events on GPT-3.5, you may have encountered something like this:

Image: Kimi Tan

Knowledge cut-off dates refer to the timeframe of the data used to train a LLM. Any events and information after the cut-off date may not be reflected, or be reflected inaccurately, in the LLM’s response.

While Google Gemini reportedly has a knowledge cut-off date of early 2023, Gemini can access and process information through Google Search and provide up-to-date responses for queries, and can even elaborate on information of events in 2024.

Giving ChatGPT live web access via ChatGPT Search, could be the key to solving the issue of knowledge cut-off dates, putting it on the same page as Gemini.

ChatGPT Search Could Pose a Serious Risk To Perplexity and Google

ChatGPT Search VS Perplexity AI

For those of you who don’t know, Perplexity AI is an innovative conversational search engine that aims to provide a more accurate and relevant search experience compared to traditional search engines like Google.

It was released in December 2022 and was created by former employees of OpenAI, Google and Meta.

What makes Perplexity AI so special is that it directly gives you the answer you’re looking for.

Reader: Doesn’t Google do the same thing?

Well, yes, but Perplexity AI takes it a step further.

You see, when you search “who is the richest man in the world” on Google, you get a ton of links to various sites which will then tell you who is the richest man in the world.

Image: Kimi Tan

Sometimes, you want to know more information, but the link you clicked doesn’t elaborate. You’ll then have to go back and click on another link or edit your search to get more information.

On the other hand, Perplexity AI quite literally spoonfeeds you the information you want.

Image: Screenshot From Perplexity.ai

You get an answer, and more information, straightaway, without having to click on any links. Without clicking on anything else, you’ll also immediately be able to see the sources as well as images, making your experience very convenient and fuss-free.

Perplexity AI is probably the best example of what ChatGPT Search could look like.

Some are saying OpenAI’s rumoured new product could spell trouble for Perplexity AI, given that OpenAI is a much bigger name in the industry and has been around longer.

That being said, there’s a possibility ChatGPT Search won’t do much harm to Perplexity AI since the two products may be similar.

The one who stands to really suffer, however, is Google.

ChatGPT Search VS Google

Combining AI with a search engine allows people to get real-time updates while also enjoying the benefits of AI chatbots such as follow-up questions, asking for the answer to be paraphrased, and more.

OpenAI is such a hot name right now that everything they say and do is monitored by many.

ChatGPT Search could become a direct competitor to Google Search and cause more and more people to switch over to OpenAI to try out the hottest new product, leaving Google in the dust.

If OpenAI plays its cards right with ChatGPT Search, then Bill Gates may have been right a year ago when he said that when AI tech fully blossoms, “You’ll never go to a search site again.”

Reader: Actually, I haven’t even opened Google for a while because I’ve been using TikTok as a search engine…

Fair enough.

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Kimi Tan