The online search landscape could face an earthquake on Monday. OpenAI, the artificial intelligence startup backed by Microsoft and often at the center of media attention, is preparing to launch its own search engine based on its generative AI technology.
A direct challenge to Google, the giant that has dominated the online search market unchallenged for years. With its new product, OpenAI aims to offer a more advanced and performing alternative, exploiting the potential of AI to redefine the way we search and find information on the web.
A strategic timing
The announcement of the launch of the OpenAI search engine (the draft comes from Reuters) seems to have been planned with a strategy that I would define as hostile. The debut will take place just one day before the start of the annual conference Google I/O, where the tech giant is expected to present a series of products related to artificial intelligence.
The move evidently aims to steal the show from Big G, attracting the attention of the public and professionals on the eve of a crucial event for its main competitor.
ChatGPT's challenges in online search
Industry observers have been considering ChatGPT, OpenAI's flagship chatbot, as a possible alternative for online intelligence gathering for a while. However, the system still encounters several difficulties in providing accurate, real-time information from the web.
To overcome this problem, OpenAI had previously integrated ChatGPT into Microsoft's Bing search engine, but only for paid subscribers. Now, with the launch of its own comprehensive search engine, the company aims to overcome these limitations and offer a more complete and satisfying search experience.
The giant is wounded by his own hand
In recent years, the quality of the search experience offered by Google has drastically deteriorated. As highlighted by a report by Ed Zitron, in 2019 an executive coup led to the demotion of Google's head of search and the move of his department under the control of the advertising team.
This move led to a progressive deterioration of search results, increasingly influenced by commercial logic and less and less able to satisfy user needs. Of course, despite the decline, Google remains deeply rooted in users' browsing habits and their browsers. And this is challenging for any competitor: OpenAI, however, could have what it takes to overcome this obstacle.
Can an AI search engine really be better?
Given Google's massive presence, it will not be enough for the "newcomer" (be it OpenAI, or perhaps Perplexity) to "simply" have the best AI. It will have to be so superior that it pushes people to abandon the search bar already present in their browsers and devices.
Not to mention that AI-based research does not necessarily guarantee a better life. As with many things in life, we have choices. And the choice, in this case, is between “the head of Google search” and “the enlightenments of an inscrutable intelligence”. In other words, we will have to carefully evaluate whether to rely on a search system controlled by commercial logic or on an artificial intelligence whose internal mechanisms and ultimate goals could escape our understanding (and be, as far as I'm concerned, no less commercial). .
Searching for an engine
The launch of the OpenAI search engine is a potentially historic moment in the online search landscape. It remains to be seen whether Sam Altman's gang will really manage to undermine Google's monopoly and redefine the way we search and find information on the web.
I sit waiting for developments, and in the meantime I search for “popcorn”.
