OpenAI tests 'SearchGPT' prototype as direct challenge to Google search engine

Sam Altman’s OpenAI unveiled a test version of its highly anticipated AI search engine on Thursday in a direct challenge to Google’s dominant hold over the online search market.

Dubbed “SearchGPT,” the tool will cite information taken from websites and news publishers, including OpenAI content partners such as The Post’s parent company News Corp and The Atlantic, to provide “fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources.”

The search tool is designed to be more conversational and interactive than traditional search engines.

Users enter their initial prompt, such as a search for “music festivals in Boone, North Carolina in August.”

From there, they can ask follow-up questions, such as whether a particular concert venue is family friendly — with SearchGPT retaining the context of the conversation to hone in on the best response.

The tool is currently being tested by a “small group of users and publishers to get feedback,” OpenAI said in a blog post.

Eventually, it will be integrated into ChatGPT, which surpassed more than 100 million weekly users last fall. For now, users who want to try the tool are directed to join a waitlist.

“Sam and the truly talented team at OpenAI innately understand that for AI-powered search to be effective, it must be founded on the highest-quality, most reliable information furnished by trusted sources,” News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said in a statement.

“For the heavens to be in equilibrium, the relationship between technology and content must be symbiotic and provenance must be protected,” Thomson added.

OpenAI’s launch represents another headache for Google, which is awaiting a federal judge’s ruling this fall on a landmark Justice Department antitrust lawsuit targeting its alleged monopoly over the online search market.

Shares of Google parent Alphabet plunged nearly 2% after OpenAI’s announcement.

OpenAI said information taken from specific news outlets and publishers will be prominently cited with “clear, in-line, named attribution” and hyperlinks “so users know where information is coming from and can quickly engage with even more results.”

“We are committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators,” OpenAI added. “We hope to help users discover publisher sites and experiences, while bringing more choice to search.”

OpenAI did not specify a timeline for a full rollout of SearchGPT. Publishers who decide to opt out of allowing their work to be used to train OpenAI models can still be surfaced in SearchGPT results, the firm added.

Earlier this month, News Corp’s Thomson described the OpenAI content licensing deal as an “important moment to recalibrate the world of search” long dominated by Google.

Aside from its deal with News Corp and The Atlantic, OpenAI has inked partnerships with the Associated Press, Politico parent Axel Springer, Dotdash Meredith and various other news publishers.

At the same time, OpenAI was sued by the New York Times, which accused the AI leader of copyright infringement for using its articles without permission.

OpenAI has denied wrongdoing.

Google has an approximately 90% market share in online search – dwarfing current rivals such as Microsoft and DuckDuckGo.

The DOJ’s federal antitrust suit against Google alleged the company relies on billions of dollars in annual payments to Apple, AT&T and other firms to ensure its search engine is the default setting on most smartphones.

Google has faced sharp criticism for taking copyrighted content from publishers without proper credit or permission – and then using that information to train its own AI models.

In June, Google unveiled a controversial search feature called “AI Overviews,” which placed autogenerated summaries at the top of search results while demoting traditional links in publishers and news outlets.

“AI Overviews” had a disastrous rollout. Google was widely mocked for bizarre results generated by the tool, such as telling readers to add glue to their pizza and to eat rocks.

News Media Alliance CEO Danielle Coffey — who leads a nonprofit that represents more than 2,200 publishers, including The Post — said the feature was a “perverse twist on innovation” that will be “catastrophic to our traffic.”

Elsewhere, the Amazon-backed $1 billion startup Perplexity, which has been building an AI-powered search engine, was recently blasted by Forbes for regurgitating its exclusive reporting without proper credit or permission.

Forbes has since threatened legal action against Perplexity.