OpenAI's ChatGPT Search Now Available as Google Alternative

[MacRumors]

OpenAI today announced the addition of ChatGPT Search to ChatGPT, allowing for improved AI-based internet searches. OpenAI says that ChatGPT is able to search the web "in a much better way than before," with the chatbot able to provide links to relevant web sources like a traditional search engine.

ChatGPT Search uses ChatGPT-4o, and it is available now on the ChatGPT website and in the desktop and mobile apps for those who have ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Teams. ChatGPT users who have been on the SearchGPT waitlist will also have access today, with OpenAI planning to bring the feature to enterprise and education users in the next few weeks. ChatGPT Search will roll out to all free users over the coming months.

Searches can be initiated based on what you ask or by clicking on the web search icon in the ChatGPT interface. With ChatGPT Search, you can ask a question using conversational language and get web info, along with more information through follow-up questions. ChatGPT maintains context, so the entire conversation can be used to get a tailored answer to a query.

OpenAI says that it has partnered with news and data providers to offer up-to-date information for categories like weather, stocks, sports, news, and maps. Searches with ChatGPT will include links to sources like news articles and blog posts for learning more about an answer. The sources button below the response will provide a sidebar with all of the references used.

OpenAI has partnered with multiple media companies, including Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, GEDI, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time, and Vox Media. Websites and publishers can opt-in to appearing in ChatGPT searches.

SearchGPT, a prototype AI search engine, was introduced earlier this year, and OpenAI tested it with a select group of users before rolling out ChatGPT search integration.

Article Link: OpenAI's ChatGPT Search Now Available as Google Alternative

 

[Return Zero]

Cool, but when are they going to rebrand? ChatGPT is such a horrible product name.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Unfortunately headed by one of the scummiest and fraudulent CEOs in Silicon Valley, Sam Altman.

...so I won't be using it..

 

[coffeemilktea]

ChatGPT with Search? I wonder how this will affect Bing and Perplexity. 🤔

(though if it's limited to paid accounts, I guess it won't affect that much?)

 

[Skyscraperfan]

I am skeptical, because I often ask ChatGPT very specific question after I did not find the answer with Google. It then displays which web searches it does to find the answer and it hardly ever is successful. For example I wanted to know which non-foldable smartphone has the the widest display or I wanted to identify a certain skyscraper. If ChatGPT does not find an answer, it acts like a politician. It writes a lot of words to hide the fact that it has no clue.

 

[gamerdude]

Now you will get incorrect information with great confidence!

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Raping your data one search at a time; built on stolen data to steal your job. Should have stayed open source.

 

[kirky29]

Now you will get incorrect information with great confidence!

But isn’t it true there are only 5 days ending in Y? 😅

 

[swiftapplefan]

Huh. I have the free account but I have access to it.

EDIT: Nevermind, I had joined the waitlist weeks ago, but I didn't get in then. Interesting.

 

[BabyBoii]

Apple, please make a search engine. and unbiased too please

 

[Hogswarts]

Little Snitch indicated ChatGPT wanted access to google.com and gstatic.com

 

[macbookj0e]

Apple, please make a search engine. and unbiased too please

Agree as google search has deteriorated badly these days. Results are shocking.

 

[VulchR]

A search engine prone to 'hallucination'? No thanks. We are asking this LLM to do a task it was never really trained to do.

 

[jimbobb24]

I have been pretty impressed with AI as a search alternative. If I need a specific fact it is usually better than google 95% of the time. In part because google has become such a mess.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Unfortunately headed by one of the scummiest and fraudulent CEOs in Silicon Valley, Sam Altman.

...so I won't be using it..

As opposed to that enlightened visionary Sundar Pichai and his endless gaggle of middle managers?

None of these people live in the same world as we do. Is it possible to be the CEO of a successful Silicon Valley company without being a scummy fraud? Doesn't seem like it.

 

[CarAnalogy]

A search engine prone to 'hallucination'? No thanks. We are asking this LLM to do a task it was never really trained to do.

I don't know, at this point we're asking Google to do a task it is trained to do and they've lost sight of keeping that good. Hallucination isn't any worse in this case than an out of context snippet or deliberate spam blog you'd get from Google results. Beyond the first link or two these days it's all useless.

Google became more focused on ads and less on quality and what once seemed unassailable is now starting to show cracks. That's why people are interested in this in the first place.

 

[VulchR]

I have been pretty impressed with AI as a search alternative. If I need a specific fact it is usually better than google 95% of the time. In part because google has become such a mess.

Google, Wikipedia, etc. are being contaminated by false information from AI that is posted on the internet. Pretty soon we won't know what to trust on the web.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

Apple, please make a search engine. and unbiased too please

Impossible for Apple's company culture to do this.

 

[Seoras]

Unfortunately headed by one of the scummiest and fraudulent CEOs in Silicon Valley, Sam Altman.

...so I won't be using it..

You think Google's guys are any better? A company that once had the motto "don't be evil" and then dropped it.
If you are picking tech based on ethics you're not applying the same filtering across them all.

 

[CarAnalogy]

Google, Wikipedia, etc. are being contaminated by false information from AI that is posted on the internet. Pretty soon we won't know what to trust on the web.

We already don't, but yes this will make it worse. The only thing we can do is what Wikipedia tries to do, and insist on citations to reliable first party sources.

I think like many others, my emotional response to AI has gone from skepticism, to delight, to trepidation, to annoyance, and is heading in to fear.

 

[Seoras]

ChatGPT is just a layer on top of google or whatever search engine OpenAI tells it to use.
Using an LLM as a default search engine is all about summarisation based on what it does know and it looking it up for you if it doesn't know.

 

[Sanlitun]

"I'm sorry, but I can't assist with that."

 

[biting-mammal]

I think Google should be quaking right now.

 

[deeside81]

Google, Wikipedia, etc. are being contaminated by false information from AI that is posted on the internet. Pretty soon we won't know what to trust on the web.

I don’t remove anything. It’s all lies.

 

[macduke]

At least Google has competition now for the first time in 20 years.