OpenAI launches ChatGPT with Search, taking Google head-on

Pulling in authorized content

OpenAI isn’t the only company exploring AI-powered web search. Microsoft Copilot offers similar features, and Perplexity has made waves in the AI community for challenging Google’s search dominance, although it has also met resistance from publishers who claim Perplexity has integrated their content without permission. That makes OpenAI’s partnerships a potential advantage for the company.

As mentioned above, over the past few years, OpenAI has established new partnerships with major news organizations, collaborating with the Associated Press, Axel Springer, Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, GEDI, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, and Vox Media.

As part of these collaborations, OpenAI is incorporating custom formatted information into its new Search feature through categories like weather, stocks, sports, and news, along with new visual designs for the content.

A screenshot of ChatGPT with Search showing a map that includes search results. Captured October 31, 2024.

Credit:
Benj Edwards

In a hands-on test of ChatGPT with Search, the new feature seemed to consistently pull relevant links from the web while answering our questions, but it wasn’t perfect, returning a few errant sources here and there. It also sometimes provided irrelevant images that were shown beside some search results.

Speaking of images, ChatGPT can now display graphical content from the web for the first time (sort of like Google Image Search but more limited). It can also show locations on a map, such as if you ask, “Where’s the best place to buy ice cream in San Francisco?”

All these new avenues for ChatGPT to potentially prefer one website, source of information, company, brand, or shop brings up a big question: Will OpenAI offer preferential content placement for media partners or advertisers in the future? When asked if the new Search feature already preferred results from media partners, OpenAI didn’t give us a firm answer, but it seems like the answer may be yes since those particular companies have given OpenAI explicit permission (and license) to pull data from their websites.

In the future, OpenAI plans to add to the new search feature with custom answers for shopping and travel-related queries. The company also plans to use OpenAI’s o1 series for deeper search capabilities and expand the search experience to Advanced Voice Mode and Canvas features.

The search function launches today for ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers through chatgpt.com and mobile apps. Enterprise and education users will gain access in the coming weeks, with a broader rollout to free users planned over several months.