Key Takeaways
- SearchGPT is an alternative search engine prototype from OpenAI that generates customized responses to questions.
- OpenAI places emphasis on the use of real-time online information and proper citations.
- This prototype is not the final product, but it is a step towards enhancing ChatGPT.
People already use talking to AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT as an alternative to searching for answers in Google Search, but OpenAI is looking to make this more official. The company is introducing SearchGPT, an AI search prototype built on the bare bones of ChatGPT, and you can sign up to try it out now.
SearchGPT is a sort of replacement for regular Google search that’s already populated with AI-generated answers from Google’s AI brief. The new prototype is also OpenAI’s first real step in integrating the latest online information into its AI models. Until now, unless you used an extension like Browse with Bing, which brings the latest web results into ChatGPT’s answers, all the information the model used to answer questions and generate ideas was based on outdated information from the last time OpenAI fed the model new training data. SearchGPT now appears to have real-time web results.
Importantly, SearchGPT makes looking for answers more natural, enabling follow-up questions in a way that regular web searches never do. This is obviously a prototype, but OpenAI is letting some people try it for themselves. Here’s what SearchGPT can do, and how to sign up to try it out.
Related
I tried NotebookLM on Gemini 1.5 Pro and it is better than ChatGPT
Fact-checking and research has become so much easier because you no longer have to guess where the AI is pulling information from.
SearchGPT is more of an answer engine than a search engine.
OpenAI is not focused on links
OpenAI / Pocket-lint
SearchGPT starts with a traditional search box that accepts the same types of questions you already ask Google. In OpenAI’s example, if you search for “When is the best time to see sea slugs in Half Moon Bay this weekend,” you’ll be shown images of sea creatures (think sea slugs, but more fun), along with the locations of tide pools to visit and recommended times to look for them.
While ChatGPT would normally answer this kind of question with text formatted like a chat response, SearchGPT creates a custom page that’s easy to read and formatted to be readable. It also lets you ask follow-up questions about the weather, for example. SearchGPT keeps the context of the initial question in mind, and if you want a list of links, you can access them by pulling up the sidebar.
SearchGPT has proper citations in mind
OpenAI / Pocket-lint
The overall experience is strikingly similar to that produced by Perplexity, an AI company focused on creating an alternative to Google Search. Perplexity scans websites for results and generates a lightly formatted, natural language response to any question. Images are also provided if needed, and Perplexity can answer additional questions. The company has also launched a feature called Perplexity Pages, which lets you share results with others and tweak the formatting and tone after the fact.
But when it comes to the differences between the two “answer engines,” the devil is in the details. Whereas Perplexity was reliably found to have plagiarized text from sources that technically shouldn’t have been accessible, OpenAI has made the case that it will strike deals with web publishers to train their articles and feature them more prominently on ChatGPT. This doesn’t mean that OpenAI isn’t guilty of similar scraping and plagiarism as its competitors, just that it seeks permission before the problem becomes more serious. SearchGPT is designed with publishers in mind, with “clear, inline named attribution and links,” OpenAI says. The company is also “launching a way for publishers to control how they appear on SearchGPT,” though it’s not entirely clear what that means.
How to try SearchGPT for yourself
The situation is not in your favor
The SearchGPT prototype can be tested by anyone with a ChatGPT account, which can be created with an email address and password, or by connecting to an existing Apple, Google, or Microsoft account. The basic steps are as follows:
- Visit ChatGPT Log in or create an account.
- fill in Necessary information.
- Visit the SearchGPT landing page Join the waiting list.
- wait The email to grant access to.
Don’t expect an answer anytime soon, though: OpenAI told The Verge that it’s only testing SearchGPT with 10,000 test users, which pales in comparison to ChatGPT’s millions of users. It’s unclear whether the initial test group will be expanded or if OpenAI plans to test SearchGPT multiple times over the coming weeks and months, but it’s clear that some elements of SearchGPT will be reverted back to their original state if you can wait.
OpenAI is clear that SearchGPT is not a product in itself: While the prototype is temporary, OpenAI plans to “integrate the best parts of these features directly into ChatGPT in the future.”
Not a search revolution yet
We’ll have to try SearchGPT out before we can say it’s a capable replacement for something like Google Search, but it looks like OpenAI at least has a view of what the modern search experience should be like: Most people aren’t looking for websites, they’re looking for answers that are on websites, and SearchGPT and Perplexity are a shortcut.
As someone who enjoys the idea of people enjoying and profiting from what I write online, it’s a bit of a scary thought, but as long as SearchGPT is still just a prototype and not the next big thing after ChatGPT, I think Google should probably be more worried.
