OpenAI Ventures into Internet Search While Google Stays Firmly on Top
OpenAI, the prominent AI research laboratory, is making strides in the field of internet search, sparking speculation about a potential rivalry with long-standing search engine giant, Google. Reports suggest that OpenAI is currently developing a web search product, although details about its relationship with the popular ChatGPT AI chatbot remain undisclosed. Sources hint that the new product will be partly powered by Bing, Microsoft’s search engine.
While OpenAI’s foray into web search has raised eyebrows, experts believe that Google’s dominance in this arena will persist for the foreseeable future. Ed Watal, the founder of Intellibus and an artificial intelligence professor at New York University, predicts that any challenge to Google’s search supremacy will take time. Nevertheless, history has shown that even the most prominent players can be dethroned, as Google itself toppled Yahoo, Alta Vista, and other search engines that preceded it.
OpenAI is not the only AI research laboratory exploring the realm of web search. In recent times, perplexity.ai launched with a focus on search-based queries, but its popularity remains modest compared to Google, which boasts a staggering 1.5 billion monthly users. Nonetheless, this new search engine has been valued at around $520 million, indicating the potential for growth in the field.
Microsoft has also taken a step into the AI-supported search engine market with its Copilot chatbot. Copilot, integrated within the Bing search engine, provides users with human-like responses backed by reliable sources. Microsoft proudly announced that Copilot has amassed over 100 million daily active users within just one month of its launch.
Despite OpenAI’s success with ChatGPT, estimated to have gained 100 million monthly users in a mere two months, experts believe that the company faces an uphill battle in chipping away at Google’s search dominance. Watal posits that OpenAI may have approximately a 30% chance of seizing market share, as Google’s established business model generates revenue from various types of search queries.
Google earns income through navigational queries, basic knowledge questions, and transaction-focused queries that result in clickable actions. In contrast, AI systems excel in research queries. Watal believes that if OpenAI can align these research-based searches with transactional aspects, they may have a chance at making an impact.
Generative AI expert Bernard Marr, author of the forthcoming book Generative AI in Practice, adds that the key to surpassing Google lies in appealing to a broad audience and providing accessible solutions. OpenAI’s conversational and personalized responses offer them an advantage in this endeavor. Meanwhile, Google is working on enhancing its own search capabilities with AI, indicating that the competition is ever-evolving.
Dev Nag, former Senior Engineer at Google, suggests that surpassing Google’s search engine requires a comprehensive overhaul of the search paradigm. Rather than a text-based search box, Nag envisions a tool that seamlessly integrates with existing communication channels, grasping user context and predicting future needs. He postulates that a new, groundbreaking tool could disrupt Google’s standing.
As AI technology advances, OpenAI and similar laboratories face a fierce battle to secure top position in the search engine market. Google’s vast scale, hardware infrastructure, and rich dataset derived from a staggering nine billion daily searches give it a distinct advantage. New entrants in the field need to scale the steep wall of Google’s advantage to achieve comparable success.
While OpenAI’s entry into web search creates excitement, it will require time, innovation, and a unique approach to challenge Google’s formidable grip on the search engine landscape. As the AI race intensifies, only time will reveal which company will emerge victorious in this battle for search engine supremacy.
