OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search

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.

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, particularly as it approaches an IPO potentially slated for early next year. OpenAI has defended its ads in the past, and Fry told reporters they hadn’t produced a lasting backlash. “Ads have not negatively impacted the product or the usage of the product,” he said, adding that “most people do not seem to mind ads in the product.”

OpenAI announced last month that the company would begin introducing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT rather than just a company’s name, logo, and a link to its product like before.

“Ads have maybe shown us that we could be doing this more, actually,” Fry said.