Google has been sitting comfortably atop the search engine throne for what seems like forever. A new challenger hopes to change that and soon. There’s a rumor going around that OpenAI is developing their own search engine to rival Google. This intel comes by way of The Information.
OpenAI has been having a banner year with ChatGPT and its powerful AI capabilities dominating the conversation. If this new rumor is true and they are working on a powerful search engine driven by AI, they might have a shot at the title.
That said, Google has already integrated their own AI chatbot, Bard, into the popular search engine. Add that headstart into their decades’ worth of search engine experience and R&D, and OpenAI would have to pull a super magic trick to even give Google a run for their money.
That also said, it doesn’t look like OpenAI is building this tool from the ground up. They are reportedly building this search tool on top of Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. This is not surprising as Microsoft owns a 49% stake in OpenAI.
Bing has struggled over the years to hold their own against the juggernaut that is Google and this could be what they need. By marrying the two technologies, they can achieve a more conversational internet search experience. And this may be the future of search.
It’s not difficult to imagine a world where you don’t type in sterile search queries hoping to hit the right key words before sifting through pages of results. An AI-powered search engine might even anticipate your moves based on other apps or activities you’re engaged in on your phone or computer. I’m going to leave imagining the vast possibilities to the experts, but the way the tech world moves, we are most definitely ready for a seismic shift in how we search the internet.
As with all rumors, this is still only that — a rumor. OpenAI hasn’t acknowledged it at all. And if it’s true, we probably won’t hear anything official for another few months.
