OpenAI's ChatGPT may have quietly launched an early version of ChatGPT Search as part of the GPT-4o rollout. The AI now informs users about the sites it is searching to provide answers and summarizes webpages. When asked a question requiring current information, ChatGPT states it is "Searching the web" and lists the sites it searched. OpenAI, partnered with Microsoft, is likely using retrieval augmented generation (RAG) to rewrite the query and search on bing.com.
OpenAI also launched a web crawler, GPTBot, in August. If you've blocked ChatGPT over content theft concerns, you may want to reconsider. ChatGPT's answer experience, particularly its prominent linking to sources, is superior to Google's recently launched AI Overviews.
ChatGPT can search the web using a tool called the browser, finding current information, recent events, or detailed answers not in its training data. It also crawls links and summarizes the information from them. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has stated that ChatGPT Search will not resemble Google Search, as he believes the world doesn't need another Google.
OpenAI, currently in the underdog position Google once held, is developing a unique take on Search combined with large language models (LLMs). With negative sentiment around Google, OpenAI has a chance at challenging Google, not by emulating it, but by changing the paradigm.
