OpenAI has introduced an artificial intelligence-driven search engine within ChatGPT, as announced on Thursday, a development that could position OpenAI to compete in the internet search market, which is largely dominated by Google.

Background

There has been ongoing speculation throughout the year about OpenAI launching a new search engine, as the company aims to challenge Google in this domain. In May, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI was working on a search feature for ChatGPT, intending to rival Google and AI search startup Perplexity. At the time, The Verge noted that OpenAI was actively recruiting former Google employees to accelerate the development of this product. Plans for the new search engine reportedly began before Google’s announcement of its Gemini AI products at its annual developer event. Over the past year, OpenAI has also formed partnerships with several major publishers, such as the Associated Press, the Financial Times, News Corp (parent of The Wall Street Journal), Axel Springer (parent of Politico and Business Insider), and others. These collaborations enable OpenAI to use the publishers’ content to improve responses to user queries and train its AI models.

Legal Issues

In December, The New York Times filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing them of “unlawful use” of millions of copyrighted articles to train AI models. The Times claims that OpenAI and Microsoft’s AI technology, which powers ChatGPT and Bing Chat (now called Copilot), can generate text that closely mirrors or summarizes Times content and mimics its style. OpenAI has filed a motion to dismiss parts of the lawsuit, arguing that ChatGPT and similar tools do not act as substitutes for a Times subscription. The case is ongoing.