5 Questions Answered About The OpenAI Search Engine via @sejournal, @martinibuster

It was reported that OpenAI is moving connected a hunt motor that would straight situation Google. But details missing from the study rise questions astir whether OpenAI is creating a standalone hunt motor oregon if there’s different crushed for the announcement.

OpenAI Web Search Report

The study published connected The Information relates that OpenAI is processing a Web Search merchandise that volition straight vie with Google. A cardinal item of the study is that it volition beryllium partially powered by Bing, Microsoft’s hunt engine. Apart from that determination are nary different details, including whether it volition beryllium a standalone hunt motor oregon beryllium integrated wrong ChatGPT.

All reports enactment that it volition beryllium a nonstop situation to Google truthful let’s commencement there.

1. Is OpenAI Mounting A Challenge To Google?

OpenAI is said to beryllium utilizing Bing hunt arsenic portion of the rumored hunt engine, a operation of a GPT-4 with Bing Search, positive thing successful the mediate to coordinate betwixt the 2 .

In that scenario, what OpenAI is not doing is processing its ain hunt indexing technology, it’s utilizing Bing.

What’s near past for OpenAI to bash successful bid to make a hunt motor is to devise however the hunt interface interacts with GPT-4 and Bing.

And that’s a occupation that Bing has already solved by utilizing what it Microsoft calls an orchestration layer. Bing Chat uses retrieval-augmented procreation (RAG) to amended answers by adding web hunt information to usage arsenic discourse for the answers that GPT-4 creates. For much accusation connected however orchestration and RAG works ticker the keynote astatine Microsoft Build 2023 lawsuit by Kevin Scott, Chief Technology Officer astatine Microsoft, astatine the 31:45 infinitesimal people here).

If OpenAI is creating a situation to Google Search, what precisely is near for OpenAI to bash that Microsoft isn’t already doing with Bing Chat? Bing is an experienced and mature hunt technology, an expertise that OpenAI does not have.

Is OpenAI challenging Google? A much plausible reply is that Bing is challenging Google done OpenAI arsenic a proxy.

2. Does OpenAI Have The Momentum To Challenge Google?

ChatGPT is the fastest increasing app of each time, presently with astir 180 cardinal users, achieving successful 2 months what took years for Facebook and Twitter.

Yet contempt that caput commencement Google’s pb is simply a steep elevation for OpenAI to climb.  Consider that Google has astir 3 to 4 billion users worldwide, perfectly dwarfing OpenAI’s 180 million.

Assuming that each 180 cardinal OpenAI users performed an mean of 4 searches per day, the regular fig of searches could scope 720 cardinal searches per day.

Statista estimates that determination are 6.3 cardinal searches connected Google per infinitesimal which equals implicit 9 cardinal searches per day.

If OpenAI is to vie they’re going to person to connection a utile merchandise with a compelling crushed to usage it. For example, Google and Apple person a captive assemblage connected mobile instrumentality ecosystem that embeds them into the regular lives of their users, some astatine enactment and astatine home. It’s reasonably evident that it’s not capable to make a hunt motor to compete.

Realistically, however tin OpenAI execute that level of ubiquity and usefulness?

OpenAI is facing an uphill conflict against not conscionable Google but Microsoft and Apple, too. If we number Internet of Things apps and appliances past adhd Amazon to that database of competitors that already person a beingness successful billions of users regular lives.

OpenAI does not person the momentum to motorboat a hunt motor to vie against Google due to the fact that it doesn’t person the ecosystem to enactment integration into users lives.

3. OpenAI Lacks Information Retrieval Expertise

Search is formally referred to arsenic Information Retrieval (IR) successful probe papers and patents. No magnitude of searching successful the Arxiv.org repository of probe papers volition aboveground papers authored by OpenAI researchers related to accusation retrieval. The aforesaid tin beryllium said for searching for accusation retrieval (IR) related patents. OpenAI’s list of probe papers besides lacks IR related studies.

It’s not that OpenAI is being secretive. OpenAI has a agelong past of publishing probe papers astir the technologies they’re developing. The probe into IR does not exist. So if OpenAI is so readying connected launching a situation to Google, wherever is the fume from that fire?

It’s a just conjecture that hunt is not thing OpenAI is processing close now. There are nary signs that it is adjacent flirting with gathering a hunt engine, there’s thing there.

4. Is The OpenAI Search Engine A Microsoft Project?

There is important grounds that Microsoft is furiously researching however to usage LLMs arsenic a portion of a hunt engine.

All of the pursuing probe papers are classified arsenic belonging to the fields of Information Retrieval (aka search), Artificial Intelligence, and Natural Language Computing.

Here are fewer probe papers conscionable from 2024:

Enhancing quality annotation: Leveraging ample connection models and businesslike batch processing
This is astir utilizing AI for classifying hunt queries.

Structured Entity Extraction Using Large Language Models
This probe insubstantial discovers a mode to extracting structured accusation from unstructured substance (like webpages). It’s similar turning a webpage (unstructured data) into a instrumentality understandable format (structured data).

Improving Text Embeddings with Large Language Models (PDF mentation here)
This probe insubstantial discusses a mode to get high-quality substance embeddings that tin beryllium utilized for accusation retrieval (IR). Text embeddings is simply a notation to creating a practice of substance successful a mode that tin beryllium utilized by algorithms to recognize the semantic meanings and relationships betwixt the words.

The supra probe insubstantial explains the use:

“Text embeddings are vector representations of earthy connection that encode its semantic information. They are wide utilized successful assorted earthy connection processing (NLP) tasks, specified arsenic accusation retrieval (IR), question answering…etc. In the tract of IR, the first-stage retrieval often relies connected substance embeddings to efficiently callback a tiny acceptable of campaigner documents from a large-scale corpus utilizing approximate nearest neighbour hunt techniques.”

There’s much probe by Microsoft that relates to search, but these are the ones that are specifically related to hunt unneurotic with ample connection models (like GPT-4.5).

Following the way of breadcrumbs leads straight to Microsoft arsenic the exertion powering immoderate hunt motor that OpenAI is expected to beryllium planning… if that rumor is true.

5. Is Rumor Meant To Steal Spotlight From Gemini?

The rumor that OpenAI is launching a competing hunt motor was published connected February 14th. The adjacent time connected February 15th Google announced the motorboat of Gemini 1.5, aft announcing Gemini Advanced connected February 8th.

Is it a coincidence that OpenAI’s announcement wholly overshadowed the Gemini announcement the adjacent day? The timing is incredible.

At this constituent the OpenAI hunt motor is conscionable a rumor.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/rafapress