OpenAI is reportedly developing its alternative to Google’s search engine.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

OpenAI is reportedly developing its alternative to Google’s search engine, which could be launched in the coming days.

Dubbed, ChatGPT search engine, according to a post on Y Combinator’s Hacker News community, the company behind the popular AI chatbot registered a new domain name “search.chatgpt.com”, along with a security certificate.

While the registration of a domain is not proof enough, AI influencers on X have been posting about the tentative launch of the company’s AI powered search engine scheduled for 9 May.

The search engine from OpenAI is speculated to combine the capabilities of a web search engine like Google with the AI capabilities of ChatGPT. Search queries on the engine are thus expected to return results that include AI-generated content along with links of relevant web pages, something that has been seen in earlier launches of AI-tools capable of searching the internet to answer questions.

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OpenAI is also expected to incorporate ads in the search engine to create a new revenue stream for the company. And, while the UI of the search engine may vary on the device, users can look to Microsoft’s Copilot, which is powered by GPT-4 and the Bing search engine, to get a sense of what the new search engine could look and feel like.

Google is currently one of the biggest players in the search engine business, controlling almost 90% of the market share. The company is reportedly considering charging users for premium features on its generative AI-powered search engine, which was launched last year.

Google is locked in a turf battle with the ChatGPT creator, OpenAI, and it’s backer Microsoft that have caught the business world’s attention through the launch of generative-AI products. OpenAI’s entry into the search engine space could further intensify competition between the companies that have been announcing the inclusion of AI-powered features in their products.