OpenAI is launching a test version of the SearchGPT search tool. The search engine will be able to summarize information found on websites, including news resources, and also answer clarifying questions from users. Links to sources will be provided at the end of each answer. SearchGPT is a direct challenge to the dominance of Google, which recently rolled out its own AI-powered search feature.
Image source: OpenAI
According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has partnered with major news outlets to access their content to train SearchGPT. Among the partners were such foreign publications as Associated Press, Financial Times, Business Insider, Le Monde and others. Some deals cost OpenAI millions of dollars.
However, many media outlets are concerned about how artificial intelligence could affect their businesses. There are concerns that AI-based search engines from OpenAI or Google will provide short but comprehensive answers, eliminating the need to follow links to sites, thus depriving publishers of traffic and, therefore, advertising revenue. According to OpenAI representatives, it is not yet clear what kind of traffic SearchGPT will be able to send to publishers. “We expect to learn more about user behavior during the tests,” the company explained.
Content publishers’ concerns were further heightened when AI search engine Perplexity last month used a Forbes article without mentioning the source of the news. CEO Aravind Srinivas attributed the incident to “roughness” in the product.
Interestingly, the American daily New York Times decided to file a lawsuit against OpenAI and its sponsor Microsoft, alleging that the newspaper’s content was used without permission to train OpenAI systems. However, OpenAI said the claim was unfounded.
However, many web publishers see value in selling access to their intellectual property to artificial intelligence companies that are keenly interested in vast amounts of data to train and improve their AI systems, including creating new products like SearchGPT . In addition, OpenAI recently announced that publishers will be able to control how their content will be displayed in SearchGPT.