A battle might be brewing as talks swirl of OpenAI working on a search engine to challenge Google’s dominance

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The smoke of rumors and speculation that OpenAI could possibly reveal a search engine at an event that’s anticipated to take place on May 9th, 2024 has certainly been getting thicker of late. If there is indeed a fire to these rumors, the announcement could set the current search engine landscape ablaze, and it would be a savvy strategic maneuver for Microsoft, a core investor and partner of OpenAI – and a rival of Google.

Open AI CEO Sam Altman has spoken about creating a more encompassing search experience that’s more comprehensive than what current search engines offer, and if it has enough novelty and appeal, it could pose a substantial challenge to Google’s search supremacy. If the success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and its GPT-related technologies are anything to go by, this is certainly possible, especially if OpenAI capitalizes on the current AI hype. 

(Image credit: Shutterstock/photosince)

Looking into the fog of speculation for clues

One of the sources of the speculation that OpenAI is gearing up for such an event is a poster on X, @apples_jimmy, who multiple outlets reference, claims that OpenAI was advertising for in-house events staff and marketing positions in January of this year, and hired an events manager last month. The user also throws out the following speculation, wrapped up with a suspected motive: 

“Guess they can’t help themselves to upstage Google I/O.”

Google I/O is an annual developer conference that’s scheduled for May 14, 2024, and it’s where Google usually announces the newest developments in its products. Google is currently experimenting with introducing AI answers ahead of search results in certain regions, and if the above rumors hold water, this may itself be an effort to beat OpenAI to the punch of offering a search experience that truly differentiates itself.

Google’s desire to use AI to answer users’ search queries hasn’t proved to be too popular, and some people feel that it’s about time the company’s vast lead in search engine market share was challenged. If OpenAI is indeed working on its own Google rival, a May 9th launch could possibly eclipse Google I/O. 

It’s suspected that if such a product is in the works at OpenAI, the organization might be leveraging its partnership with Microsoft, and use Microsoft’s knowledge and expertise with its own search engine Bing to deliver a unique search experience.

(Image credit: Shutterstock/Rokas Tenys)

A steadily growing stream of clues

All of this is rumor at the moment, but there have been other reports that appear to give credence to them, including one by MSPowerUser back in Februrary 2024 that claimed OpenAI was working on something like this. It didn’t offer much detail or confirm anything, but the article proposed that the web search tool could either be integrated into the existing ChatGPT chatbot, or might even be a standalone product. 

There’s also been a report of the domain name search.chatgpt.com being registered, spotted by a Reddit user and echoed by X user and host of The Neuron: AI Explained podcast @nonmayorpete. The URL address currently just returns a blank page with a ‘Not found.’ For me, this isn’t my browser returning a faulty page, just what looks like a deliberately made page that displays this.

Altman has spoken about his and OpenAI’s overall vision in pretty vague terms, and while he hasn’t said anything that confirms these rumors, nor has he explicitly contradicted them either. For example, he has expressed aspirations in a recent podcast with Lex Fridman to develop a search experience that goes beyond Google’s ‘basic’ search results and helps people understand the information provided more easily, underlining that he doesn’t want to build a copy of Google Search – something you could argue other rivals (like Bing) have attempted to do in the past, without success. 

We’ll have to wait and see what happens on May 9, but I can say this much: if OpenAI makes its own search engine, I will be keen to try it. Google’s market lead remains formidable, but ChatGPT and OpenAI’s other efforts have already shifted many people’s attitudes (and even behaviors) when it comes to interacting with artificial intelligence. Google also has whatever Gemini-related cards we haven’t seen yet to play, and even if it manages to keep hold of its huge lead, another competitor in the search engine space will certainly make things interesting – and could make sure Google doesn’t get complacent. 

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