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OpenAI today unveiled a search interface for ChatGPT aimed at giving users information they "would have previously needed to go to a search engine for."
That search engine, dubbed ChatGPT search, is rolling out tomorrow for paid Plus and Team subscribers. Free users and Enterprise and Edu accounts will get access "in the coming weeks."
Now, ChatGPT will surface a list of citations along with its typical paragraph-like summaries. This could boost trust in ChatGPT's output by providing a quick way to fact-check it, which we have flagged as an issue since the chatbot's debut.
OpenAI says it will save users time and provide a "natural, conversation" search experience. ChatGPT will automatically respond to new questions with information from the web. Users can ask follow-ups to go deeper.
(Credit: OpenAI)Google search already offers a combination of AI-powered summaries, dubbed AI Overviews, plus a traditional list of links. AI Overviews were developed in response to ChatGPT, and are now the default on most searches worldwide. However, they are not as conversational as ChatGPT and do not make it easy to ask follow-up questions.
ChatGPT must see an opening to one-up Google in the search experience. Rumors of OpenAI's rival product have swirled since May 2024. OpenAI revealed a prototype called "SearchGPT" in July, and it seems to have modified that name for the final product.
ChatGPT search runs on a fine-tuned version of its flagship GPT-4o model, plus some data distillation from the o1-preview model that debuted in September. The output comes from a combination of "third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners." Google currently fields 90% of search traffic worldwide.
(Credit: OpenAI)OpenAI has inked licensing deals with many publishers, such as Condé Nast, Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, News Corp, and Vox Media. They will "offer even more up-to-date information and new visual designs for categories like weather, stocks, sports, and news" in ChatGPT.
Can the search experience chill OpenAI's fraught relationship with media companies, most of which block its web crawlers? The New York Times is also still suing OpenAI (and rival Perplexity) for copyright infringement.
OpenAI hopes more sites will let its crawlers in now because ChatGPT search links to their content, which could drive traffic and revenue to their sites. However, it's still likely less than a traditional, link-based search since ChatGPT will summarize the content and reduce the need to consult the original source.
"Any website or publisher can choose to appear in ChatGPT search," OpenAI says. "If you’d like to share feedback, please email us at publishers-feedback@openai.com."