Reported by The Verge AI
ChatGPT processes one-fifth the volume of search queries as Google, per OpenAI.
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In many circles, “Ask Chat” has replaced “Google it,” and that’s reflected in a new announcement from OpenAI: the volume of search queries run through ChatGPT now equals 20 percent of the volume run through Google.
More from the original report
Adam Fry, OpenAI’s consumer product lead for ChatGPT, made the announcement at a press event on Monday. He said the company defines a search as any time a user inputs a query that results in a web search, as opposed to tasks like defining a term or a simple how-to explanation. (Fry did not specify the source of the Google search volume number.)
Having one-fifth as many searches as Google is still a long way from overtaking it, but for comparison, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during Google’s 2023 antitrust trial that Bing had about 3 percent of the search engine market share after trying for more than a decade. During the trial, Google described AI as a potential disruptor, arguing ChatGPT was poised to seriously compete with it — now, OpenAI seems to agree. (OpenAI likely uses Microsoft Bing for a significant part of its searches, along with its in-house search index, although there is still some speculation that it routes some queries through Google.)
The news comes amid an ongoing search engine shake-up, as Google continues to reduce conventional referrals to third-party sites and invests heavily in AI tools — not just AI Overview but also additional generative AI capabilities , including personalized search results with visualizations and charts. But as search queries increasingly route through OpenAI and other AI labs’ services, other companies are investing in the same types of AI-focused search experience, even if they call it something else: for OpenAI, it’s “Intelligent UI,” or creating a visual and interactive interface within a chatbot response. “That’s where the future of this technology goes. You’re talking to a canvas,” Fry said.
Much like Google, OpenAI sees a potential path to profitability through ads,…