OpenAI is adding a new set of search features to its flagship product ChatGPT, escalating the artificial intelligence startup’s challenge to Alphabet Inc.’s Google.
The option, called ChatGPT Search, will let the chatbot’s users search for timely information much as they would on the web and get responses with in-line attribution to news publishers and other data sources, OpenAI said Thursday. The company rolled out a prototype of the product in July called SearchGPT, which was separate from its ChatGPT app and only available to a limited number of users.
The new search capabilities, which use OpenAI’s 4o model, will go live beginning with paid ChatGPT Plus and Team users on Thursday for mobile and web. OpenAI’s enterprise and educational customers will be able to get access to the features in the coming weeks and free users sometime in the coming months.
Following the viral success of ChatGPT in late 2022, tech companies raced to incorporate generative AI into a long list of services, including online search. OpenAI-backer Microsoft Corp. and Google have overhauled their search products to include more conversational AI features. Perplexity, a rival AI search startup, is now in early talks to raise funding at a $9 billion valuation, Bloomberg previously reported. With ChatGPT Search, OpenAI is poised to bring similar AI search functionality to the 250 million people who use the chatbot each week.
Shares of Alphabet were down more than 1% Thursday following the news.