OpenAI launches ChatGPT search and competes with Google and Microsoft

OpenAI on Thursday launched a search feature in ChatGPT, its viral chatbot, enabling the powerhouse artificial intelligence startup to better compete with search engines like Google, Microsoft's Bing and Perplexity.

ChatGPT Search offers up-to-date sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, powered by real-time web search and partnerships with news and data providers, according to the company. In July, the company began beta testing the search engine called SearchGPT.

The publication could have implications for Google as the dominant search engine. Since ChatGPT launched in November 2022, Alphabet investors have worried that OpenAI could take search market share from Google by giving consumers new ways to search for information online.

Shares of Alphabet fell about 1% following the news.

The move also positions OpenAI as more of a competitor Microsoft and his businesses. Microsoft has invested nearly $14 billion in OpenAI, yet OpenAI's products compete directly with Microsoft's AI and search tools like Copilot and Bing.

In one Reddit Srinivas Narayanan, OpenAI's technical vice president, answered a user question on AMA Thursday about whether ChatGPT Search uses Bing as a search engine behind the scenes, writing: “We use a number of services, and Bing is an important service.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a post on X on Thursday that search was his “favorite feature we've introduced” in ChatGPT since the chatbot's original debut.

According to OpenAI, users can “search more naturally and intuitively” and ask follow-up questions, “just like in a conversation.” The search model is a fine-tuned version of OpenAI's most powerful AI model to date, GPT-4o, and is powered in part by third-party search providers and content from news industry partners.

“I find it's a much quicker/easier way to get the information I'm looking for,” Altman said during the Reddit AMA on Thursday. “I think we will see this particularly in searches that require more complex research. I also look forward to a future where a search query can dynamically render a custom web page in response!”

OpenAI wrote in a blog post Thursday that it used feedback from its SearchGPT prototype to develop the feature and that it plans to “continue to improve search, particularly in areas such as shopping and travel, leveraging the reasoning capabilities of search engines.” OpenAI o1 series to use “deeper research.”

According to an OpenAI blog post, ChatGPT “automatically searches the web based on your questions.” Users can manually click the web search icon in ChatGPT to perform a search if necessary.

Chats now contain links to sources such as articles or blog posts, which users can access by clicking the Sources button below the reply to open a sidebar. OpenAI said it worked with its news partners, including The Associated Press, Reuters, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Hearst, Dotdash Meredith, the Financial Times, News Corp., Le Monde, The Atlantic, Time and Vox Media.

According to an OpenAI blog post, all ChatGPT Plus and Team users, as well as SearchGPT waitlist members, will be able to access ChatGPT Search starting Thursday. ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users will gain access in the next few weeks, and the product will roll out to users of the free version of ChatGPT “in the coming months,” according to OpenAI.

OpenAI closed its latest funding round earlier this month at a valuation of $157 billion, including the $6.6 billion the company raised from an extensive list of investment firms and Big Tech companies. The company also received a $4 billion revolving credit facility, increasing its total liquidity to over $10 billion. OpenAI expects losses of about $5 billion this year on revenue of $3.7 billion, a person familiar with the situation confirmed to CNBC in September.

OpenAI has experienced some controversy in recent months over its impending transition to a for-profit structure, as well as a number of executive departures. Jan Leike, a former head of the company's security team, wrote on X when he resigned that “security culture and processes have taken a back seat to shiny products” at the company.