OpenAI brings search features to ChatGPT

In a bid to escalate the challenge to Alphabet Inc.’s Google, OpenAI is adding a new set of search features to its flagship product ChatGPT.  According to OpenAI, the option, called ChatGPT Search, will let the chatbot’s users search for timely information just like they would on the web and get responses with in-line attribution to news publishers and other data sources. The company rolled out a prototype of the product in July called SearchGPT.

The SearchGPT was separate from its ChatGPT app and only available to a limited number of users.

The new search capabilities will use OpenAI’s 4o model, and will go live beginning with paid ChatGPT Plus and Team users for mobile and web. OpenAI’s enterprise and educational customers will also be able to get access to the features in the coming weeks and free users sometime in the coming months.

In the wake of the viral success of ChatGPT in late 2022, tech companies raced to incorporate generative AI into a long list of services, including online search. OpenAI-backer Microsoft Corp. and Google have overhauled their search products to include more conversational AI features. Perplexity, a rival AI search startup, is now in early talks to raise funding at a $9 billion valuation.

With ChatGPT Search, OpenAI is poised to bring similar AI search functionality to the 250 million people who use the chatbot each week.