OpenAI is launching a test version of its SearchGPT search tool. This search engine will summarize information found on websites, including news sources, and answer clarifying questions from users. Links to sources will be provided at the end of each answer. SearchGPT is a direct challenge to the dominance of Google, which recently rolled out its own AI-powered search function.
According to The Wall Street Journal, OpenAI has partnered with major news outlets to gain access to their content to train SearchGPT. The partners include such foreign publications as the Associated Press, Financial Times, Business Insider, Le Monde, and others. Some deals cost OpenAI millions of dollars.
Concerns and Lawsuits
However, many media outlets are concerned about how artificial intelligence can affect their business. There are concerns that OpenAI or Google’s AI-powered search engines will provide brief but comprehensive answers, eliminating the need to click on links to sites, thus depriving publishers of traffic and, accordingly, advertising revenue. According to OpenAI, it is not yet clear what kind of traffic SearchGPT will be able to send to publishers. “We expect to learn more about user behavior during our tests,” the company explained.
Publishers’ concerns were further heightened when Perplexity, an AI search engine, used a Forbes article last month without citing the source of the news. CEO Aravind Srinivas attributed the incident to “rough spots” in the product. Interestingly, the New York Times has decided to sue OpenAI and its sponsor Microsoft, alleging that the newspaper’s content was used without permission to train OpenAI’s systems. However, OpenAI has said that the lawsuit is without merit.
Future Prospects and Publisher Control
Many web publishers see value in selling access to their intellectual property to AI companies that are keen to have vast amounts of data to train and improve their AI systems, including to create new products like SearchGPT, notes NIX Solutions. In addition, OpenAI recently announced that publishers will be able to control how their content is displayed in SearchGPT. We’ll keep you updated as this situation evolves and more information becomes available.