OpenAI Tipped to Be Working on a ChatGPT-Powered AI Search Engine to Rival Google Search

OpenAI might be working on an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engine that will be based on its ChatGPT. According to a forum post, the AI ​​company may have already created the domain and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates for the website, which are required to authenticate a website. If this is true, OpenAI will be directly positioned to compete with major players in the segment, such as Google Search and Microsoft Bing, as well as Perplexity AI, which also has its own AI search engine.

The information comes from a community post on Y Combinator's Hacker News that stated, “Search.chatgpt.com domain and SSL certificate created.” The post was made by a netizen with the handle daolf, and the post had 127 upvotes at the time of writing. We took a look at the user's posting history and found no leaks or rumors, although the whistleblower shares a significant amount of news articles on the forum. While this suggests the information may be genuine, there's no way to know for sure.

However, some AI influencers have also started posting about a search engine with ChatGPT on social media. Tipster @nonmayropete posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) about the speculated search engine and even included the date of May 9, suggesting that's when the domain will go live.

We tried to access search.chatgpt.com but the web page just says “Not Found”. Since it is a subdomain of chatgpt.com that is already occupied by OpenAI, it is not possible to check the status of the subdomain.

However, an AI-powered search engine is not a new concept. Perplexity AI, which launched in 2022, is a popular example of a chatbot-controlled search engine. Users can search for their queries and browse the Internet to find relevant information in text form, and it also displays websites that may provide additional information. In particular, Perplexity AI uses Microsoft Bing for its web indexing. If the rumors are true, OpenAI's search engine product could work in the same way.