The initial reactions to OpenAI’s SearchGPT, poised to rival Google Search, have been decidedly mixed. Launched with much fanfare in July, Google’s stronghold seems unshaken for now. Designed to enhance the search experience by delivering AI-crafted, coherent answers instead of traditional search results, SearchGPT pulls data from Bing among other sources. OpenAI has positioned it as a holistic resource for those seeking information. Intriguingly, Google has also started to incorporate AI-driven summaries, known as AI Overviews, atop its search results.
Early feedback reveals that SearchGPT still has some issues to smooth over, including inaccuracies and misleading “hallucinated” information where the AI provides incorrect details with confidence. Users like software engineer Ananay Arora have critiqued the AI’s image results and sourcing, finding them lackluster. On the other hand, tech professional Daniel Lemire considers it an improvement over Google’s AI Overviews, though both fall short of the performance delivered by the AI startup Perplexity.
AI aficionado Matt Berman noted in a YouTube critique that although AI search tools sometimes outperform Google in specialised areas like event planning or coding, significant errors—like incorrect information about event speakers—underscore reliability issues. OpenAI’s decision to initially release SearchGPT as a prototype indicates a strategic move to allow further refinements. Despite a robust following from ChatGPT’s 200 million weekly users, SearchGPT has yet to substantially impact Google’s dominance, particularly in sectors like online shopping and local searches, as reported by search marketing firm BrightEdge.
However, ongoing developments hint that transformative shifts in our online search and information interaction methods are likely on the way.
