December 25, 2024

In this photo illustration, the OpenAI logo is displayed on a mobile phone screen, along with a photo of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.

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OpenAI on Thursday launched a search feature in its viral chatbot ChatGPT that allows the powerful artificial intelligence startup to better compete with search engines, such as Google, MicrosoftBing and confused.

ChatGPT Search provides the latest sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more, powered by real-time web searches and partnerships with news and data providers, according to the company. It began beta testing of a search engine called SearchGPT in July.

The release of this version could have an impact on Google as the dominant search engine. Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, Alphabet investors have been worried that OpenAI may take search market share from Google by providing new ways for consumers to search for information online.

Alphabet shares fell about 1% after the news broke.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT search

Open artificial intelligence

The move also positions OpenAI as more of a competitor Microsoft and its business. Microsoft has invested nearly $14 billion in OpenAI, but OpenAI’s products compete directly with Microsoft’s AI and search tools such as Copilot and Bing.

in a Reddit On Thursday, OpenAI vice president of engineering Srinivas Narayanan wrote in response to a user’s question about whether ChatGPT searches use Bing as the search engine behind the scenes, “We use a set of services, and Bing is an important one.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote in a post on Thursday Post on X The search is his “favorite feature launched” in ChatGPT since the chatbot debuted.

OpenAI says users can “search in a more natural and intuitive way” and ask follow-up questions “just like in a conversation.” The search model is a fine-tuned version of OpenAI’s most powerful artificial intelligence model to date, GPT-4o, driven in part by content provided by third-party search vendors and journalism partners.

“I find it’s a faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for,” Ultraman said in a Reddit AMA on Thursday. “I think we’ll see this, especially for queries that require more complex research. I also look forward to future search queries that can dynamically render custom web pages in response!”

OpenAI wrote in a blog post on Thursday that it used feedback from the SearchGPT prototype to build the feature and plans to “constantly improve search, especially in areas such as shopping and travel, and leverage the inference capabilities of the OpenAI o1 series to enable more In-depth research.

According to a blog post from OpenAI, ChatGPT will “automatically search the web based on your requests.” If the user wishes, they can manually click on the web search icon in ChatGPT to search.

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

OpenAI’s ChatGPT search

Open artificial intelligence

According to a blog post from OpenAI, all ChatGPT Plus and Team users, as well as members of the SearchGPT waitlist, will have access to ChatGPT search starting Thursday. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users will gain access in the coming weeks, and the product will be rolled out to users of the free version of ChatGPT “in the coming months.”

OpenAI completed its latest round of funding earlier this month at a valuation of $157 billion, including $6.6 billion the company raised from numerous investment firms and large technology companies. It also secured a $4 billion revolving credit facility, bringing its total liquidity to more than $10 billion. CNBC confirmed to a person familiar with the matter in September that OpenAI expected revenue to reach $3.7 billion this year and a loss of about $5 billion.

OpenAI has experienced some controversy in recent months over its impending transition to a for-profit structure and a series of senior executive departures. Jan Leike, the company’s former security team leader, wrote on X when he resigned that “the company’s security culture and processes had given way to shiny products.”

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