OpenAI announces SearchGPT, a prototype search engine powered by AI

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Search engines have been around for over two decades. But while we may have seen small quality-of-life improvements over the years, search engines haven't changed much. However, OpenAI wants to be the first to do something different with its new search engine.

In an official announcement, OpenAI said that SearchGPT is a temporary prototype with AI search features. It combines OpenAI's AI models with information from the Internet to provide users with "fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources". Furthermore, OpenAI will eventually integrate some of these features into ChatGPT. We're unsure if this means ChatGPT will 'absorb' SearchGPT and obtain its AI search engine capabilities, but that could very well be the case.

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So, how is an AI-powered search engine different from a regular one? According to the announcement, it's mainly in AI's ability to 'converse' with the user. Besides throwing out search results, SearchGPT allows follow-up queries to expand on these results. In the example uploaded by OpenAI, you can see that the user wanted to know about music festivals in North Carolina. The user then asked a second query about whether a particular festival was family-friendly. Users could get varying answers due to the AI searching based on a user's location, date and more.

Currently, SearchGPT is being tested by selected publishers, so we won't have access anytime soon. But you can join the waitlist to get notified when it's out. Anyway, what do you think? Will this AI search engine change the way we search? Share your thoughts in the comments and stay tuned to TechNave for more news like this.