American company OpenAI is posing as a strong competitor to Google’s search engine with a new ChatGPT-powered search feature for its paid users, the company announced on Thursday.
This feature, integrated directly into ChatGPT’s existing interface, allows subscribers to quickly access sports scores, news, stock quotes, and more. Rather than creating a standalone search platform, OpenAI has embedded the search tool within its chatbot, with future plans to expand free access to all users.
OpenAI sources its search data from leading international news providers like France’s Le Monde, Germany’s Axel Springer, and the UK’s Financial Times, following licensing agreements with these media companies.
In May, Google incorporated Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated summaries at the top of its search results to provide quick, direct answers. However, this trend toward AI-generated content has raised concerns among media organizations over the use of news articles that were originally written by professional journalists.
Several news companies, including The New York Times, have taken legal action against OpenAI and Microsoft, alleging copyright infringement in how AI models use their content, AP News reported. Similarly, News Corp., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal and The New York Post, filed a lawsuit in October against “Perplexity,” another AI search engine.
These legal developments highlight a growing tension between tech companies leveraging AI to reshape search and news organizations seeking to protect their intellectual property.