OpenAI debuted a new prototype search engine on Thursday. The feature, called SearchGPT, could pose a direct threat to Google's longstanding search dominance.
Microsoft-backed (MSFT) OpenAI says SearchGPT will be available to a small group of users and publishers as it develops the software and collects feedback. The company is positioning its offering as a new means of searching the web.
"Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results. We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier," the company said in a blog post announcing the search engine.
OpenAI says it eventually hopes to integrate its SearchGPT features directly into ChatGPT. Users interested in accessing the search engine will need to sign up for OpenAI's waitlist.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL) were off slightly following the announcement, but nudged higher in Friday's pre-market trading.
Generative AI has raised fears among publishers that the technology will summarize content in a way that will prevent users from needing to visit those media companies' websites, eating into their advertising revenue and further debilitating an already ailing industry.
OpenAI, however, is attempting to alleviate those fears, saying that generative AI search responses will include links to sources and publishers' websites.
'SearchGPT is designed to help users connect with publishers by prominently citing and linking to them in searches," the company explained. "Responses have clear, in-line, named attribution and links so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results in a sidebar with source links."
OpenAI also says that its SearchGPT is separate from how the company trains its AI models, and that even if publishers opt out of having their data used to train OpenAI's models, they'll still appear in the SearchGPT search results.
Google already offers generative AI capabilities in its search product, called AI Overviews. Available via a special panel at the top of search results, AI Overviews summarizes data from websites and presents it in a single paragraph with available links.
But SearchGPT looks to be built from the ground up with generative AI in mind, rather than using the technology as an add-on for an existing product like Google Search. That could give OpenAI a distinct advantage if SearchGPT proves successful among early users and publishers.
Microsoft's Bing also offers its own generative AI feature.
But generative AI results in search engines aren't always reliable. Google was forced to address concerns around AI Overviews shortly after launching the feature when users found that the offering provided wild responses like telling people to put glue in their pizza or eat rocks.
But tackling Google is a tall task. According to Statcounter, Google controls 91% of the global search engine market across all platforms. That number jumps to 95% on mobile devices. Still, even a few percentage points of market share could be worthwhile for OpenAI.
When Microsoft debuted its generative AI-powered version of Bing in 2022, CFO Amy Hood told analysts that just 1 percentage point of market share in search advertising is worth $2 billion in annual revenue.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on X at @DanielHowley.
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