Highlights:
- ChatGPT substitutes a list for the typical text snippet it often produces when a user searches for upcoming events in a certain area.
- In the future, OpenAI might be able to make money off of their search engine by providing an enterprise version through an API.
OpenAI updated ChatGPT’s built-in search engine features with new capabilities to help users search relevant data promptly.
The company launched a 12-day series of product announcements last week, which included this debut of the improvements. In the past, OpenAI offered a premium ChatGPT service along with its Sora video generator.
In July, ChatGPT’s search engine made its debut as SearchGPT, a stand-alone service. OpenAI referred to it at the time as a “temporary prototype” that was mainly meant for gathering input. A few weeks after its inception, the service was shut down, but it later reappeared as the version that is now integrated into ChatGPT.
Up until now, the search engine was limited to the paid chatbot tiers. With the new upgrade, the free version is now available. In the meantime, OpenAI has improved speed and included a setting that lets users make the feature the default search engine in their browser.
The company’s large language models power the search engine’s internal workings. The application provides a natural language response to a user’s inquiry instead of a list of online links. The response produced by AI may consist of multiple paragraphs.
When it gets specific kinds of inquiries, the updated search engine modifies the format of the return.
ChatGPT substitutes a list for the typical text snippet it often produces when a user searches for upcoming events in a certain area. Every item in the list includes a thumbnail, a link to the pertinent webpage, and a brief description of an upcoming event.
More specific information is returned by ChatGPT’s search engine when users look up eateries. Additionally, a pop-up panel with reviews, directions, opening hours, and other information appears when you click on a restaurant listing.
Additionally, ChatGPT now employs a customized response structure when users look up well-known websites. For instance, when a user writes Booking.com, the search engine’s natural language response is followed by a link to the travel booking website. Conversely, videos can now be played straight within the ChatGPT interface.
When the chatbot detects that the user wants to retrieve information from the web, it immediately reroutes requests to its search engine. There’s also a new setting that, when activated, automatically submits searches to the search engine.
In the future, OpenAI might be able to make money off of their search engine by providing an enterprise version through an API.
Such services are already provided by a number of venture-backed competitors, such as Cohere Inc. Businesses may incorporate an AI-powered search engine into their websites due to this technology. An integrated search engine, for instance, can be used by online merchants to assist customers in finding particular products more rapidly.