OpenAI takes on Google, with new AI-powered search engine ‘SearchGPT’: All we know so far

After months of rumours, Sam Altman's startup OpenAI has finally unveiled a search engine competitor to Google called SearchGPT. The new feature is currently in 'prototype' stage and is only available via a waiting list, but is expected to be rolled out to all users in the future.

In a blogpost about new search feature, OpenAI wrote, “We’re testing SearchGPT, 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.”

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SearchGPT start page is akin to Google and we get a message reading, “what are you looking for?” After entering the search query, though, you get a direct answer much like Perplexity or Google's disgraced AI overviews feature. 

A query for music festivals in Boone, Northern California in August returns a list of all such festivals, along with a 2-3 line description that prominently mentions the source from which the information was taken. Users are also given a links option on the left-hand side of the page, where they can view all the links cited by OpenAI and open them for more detailed information. In addition, similar to ChatGPT, users can ask follow-up questions to get more information.

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OpenAI, which is already being sued by major news publishers like The New York Times, said that it is committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators. The company said SearchGPT uses AI to highlight high quality content in a conversational interface while providing user the opportunity to connect with news publishers via the cited links.