OpenAI has just announced a prototype of SearchGPT, a set of new AI-powered search features for which you can sign up on a waitlist. It’s a notable effort from OpenAI that promises to combine the strengths of its AI models, including those behind ChatGPT, and instant access to the web.
ChatGPT has garnered a reputation for being able to answer pretty complex queries in a coherent, congenial manner and now OpenAI is looking to make it possible to be able to use this technology to comb through actual real-time information. OpenAI has said that its goal was to eventually integrate the best of these AI search tools right into ChatGPT. The first thought that comes to mind is that if SearchGPT impresses like ChatGPT has, people will expect Google to kick its AI-related efforts into a higher gear (for better or worse).
Google has already made efforts to offer novel AI-powered search products with efforts like AI Overviews, which we haven’t heard very much about recently due to their initial poor reception. Microsoft has, however, taken the baton from Google it appears, and is rolling out its own AI-generated summary sections in Bing.
How to make sure you're on the waitlist
SearchGPT is currently in closed prototype development and testing, but with its announcement, OpenAI has made it possible to sign up for a waitlist. In order to sign up for the waitlist, you’ll need to log into or sign up for a ChatGPT account. After you log in, you’ll need to go to the new dedicated SearchGPT page on the ChatGPT website and click Join waitlist, which should fade once you’ve joined and transform to say ‘You’re on the waitlist.”
If you don’t get selected in the immediate round of testing, don’t fret, as Tom’s Hardware reports that testing will begin with up to 10,000 people. I’m sure OpenAI will open up access eventually, although we don’t know what the timeline for this looks like yet.
If your interest is piqued and you’re interested in generative AI conversational search, you actually don’t have to wait until SearchGPT’s debut to familiarize yourself.
Try Perplexity AI and generative AI conversational search now
While this is the first time we’ve heard OpenAI officially entering into the AI search product game, among AI experts and enthusiasts, there’s actually another AI-powered conversational search engine that was also initially launched in 2022 (like ChatGPT) - Perplexity AI. While SearchGPT will certainly have to compete with the likes of Google Search and Bing, it looks like Perplexity AI already allows users to do a lot of what SearchGPT is aiming to do.
Similar to OpenAI’s offering of ChatGPT, Perplexity AI works on a freemium model basis with two tiers, again like ChatGPT. There’s a ‘Standard’ tier which is free and it allows you to make unlimited ‘Quick’ searches with are ideal for straightforward queries seeking swift, basic answers. This tier utilizes the Standard Perplexity AI Model and allows you to create a profile to personalize your answers. With this tier, you also get 5 Pro tier searches a day.
The Pro tier gives you access to more than that, as you might have guessed. With this you get unlimited Quick searches and the ability to make 600 Pro searches a day. Perplexity Pro goes beyond Quick search capabilities, which you can read in more detail about on Perplexity AI’s website.
With Perplexity Pro, you can choose which AI model you’d like to use, including GPT-4o, Claude-3, and Sonar Large (Llama 3), and you can upload and analyze an unlimited number of files. As well as all these benefits, you’re also given the ability to visualize 50 answers a day and $5 a month in API credits (which is mainly of interest to developers).
To try Perplexity’s generative AI search for yourself, go to the Perplexity AI homepage, where you’ll be met with a text field that says ‘Ask anything…’
Here, you can describe what you’re searching for or investigating, and Perplexity AI gives some suggestions about how to search. There are also example queries right under the search query text box, and it has a designated ‘Getting Started’ page that recommends that you consider your query prompt, using two to three keywords focused on what you’d like to learn about or upload a file.
This page goes further into what you can do if you choose to create a Perplexity AI account, which grants you capabilities like being able to personalize your AI profile and create collections of your queries.
If you’re interested in using Perplexity’s more advanced features regularly, then yes, you’ll have to subscribe to Perplexity Pro. For most people, trying the free tier will keep you busy enough in the meantime as you become familiar with what generative AI conversational search looks like. We don’t know if SearchGPT will be similar to this or if OpenAI will make a more concerted effort to distinguish itself, but you can sign up for the SearchGPT waitlist and hope you get picked to find out.