OpenAI made ChatGPT with search, or SearchGPT, live on Thursday for paid subscribers, with plans to roll it out more broadly to free plans in the coming months. ChatGPT users can now click a “Search” button when texting the AI chatbot to perform a real-time web search. The resulting answer has a “Resources” button with referral links.
“This is huge news in the search world,” Damian Rollison, director of market insights at marketing firm AI. SOCIsaid entrepreneur in an emailed statement. “ChatGPT is perhaps best positioned among all competitors to disrupt Google's dominance in search.”
Google currently has approx 90% of the search engine market and still has an advantage: Google has a 26-year head start on OpenAI experience, Rollison says, and “the success of SearchGPT will depend on the company bringing a different approach to the search experience that users they find it really refreshing and new.
SearchGPT in action. Photo Credit: OpenAI
How does SearchGPT differ from Google Search?
The SearchGPT experience differs from Google in that the chatbot remains conversational. Instead of a page full of links, SearchGPT responds with a condensed summary of information it has selected from selected sources. Users can submit follow-up queries to SearchGPT if the information it provides is not what they were looking for.
Related: Finally ChatGPT gives businesses what they have been asking for
AI chatbot too there are no ads or still promoted answers, which further softens the search response.
Alon Yamin, co-founder and CEO of AI plagiarism detection tool Copyleakssaid entrepreneur that SearchGPT would “undoubtedly” affect traditional search engines like Google, but that it is unclear how it would affect SEO or search engine optimization.
“As AI tools become more sophisticated and become part of our daily lives, distinguishing between AI-generated and human-generated content, properly attributing original sources or authors, and empowering overall originality become even more critical ,” Yamin said.
ChatGPT has 200 million weekly active users. 92% of the Fortune 500 companies use OpenAI products.
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