Who says ‘Google Search is dead’, ChatGPT found ‘Googling’ to answer users’ queries and …
Despite aiming to replace Google Search, OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been using its Search data to respond to real-time queries, says a report by The Information. According to it, OpenAI’s AI chatbot ChatGPT relies on SerpApi, a paid web-scraping tool, to pull results from Google Search. This allows the chatbot to answer questions on fast-moving topics such as news, sports, and financial markets—areas where OpenAI’s own systems fall short.As per the report, OpenAI was previously listed as a SerpApi client, but that reference has now been removed. Other clients reportedly include Meta, Apple, and AI search startup Perplexity.The Information report comes days after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he no longer uses Google Search due to ChatGPT’s superior search capabilities. In an interaction with The Verge, Altman said: “I legitimately cannot tell you the last time I did a Google search”.Notably, the report contradicts the AI company’s previous remarks. OpenAI had officially said that ChatGPT’s search function uses its own web crawler, Bing, and licensed publisher data. But during Google’s antitrust trial last year, ChatGPT head Nick Turley admitted that the company had asked Google for access to its search index. The request, he then said, was denied.Turley also acknowledged issues with Microsoft’s Bing, saying it had “significant quality issues” and was “at best a near-term solution.” He added: “Having access to the data that underlies Google’s index, the content or signals, would accelerate the development of our own index.”
ChatGPT’s rise signals death of traditional search
OpenAI’s ChatGPT now commands 700 million weekly users and ranks as the world’s fifth-largest website. Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, Google’s search dominance has faced growing pressure. The introduction of ChatGPT’s search feature last year, alongside rivals like Bing and Perplexity, only heightened fears that AI could chip away at Google’s core business.Adding to that, former Google engineer Abhishek Iyer had earlier shown how ChatGPT could retrieve information from dummy pages that only existed in Google’s index—further evidence of its reliance on Google Search.Still, analysts say traditional search is far from dead. Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives has previously said that the “death of search is greatly exaggerated,” pointing to Alphabet’s strong quarterly results as proof of Google’s staying power.
