When we first met Google’s AI Overviews, it was recommending some dangerous pizza ingredients as well as striking immediate fear in the hearts of publishers who saw their content further depreciated by an already cluttered and seemingly compromised Search Result page.
The News/Media Alliance quickly expressed its concern in a letter to the Department of Justice and FTC, calling out “Google’s misappropriation of digital publishers’ content to power its generative artificial intelligence (“GAI”) products to enhance its monopoly power.”
With Google facing the initial heat and reportedly reducing the overall presence of AI Overviews in its results, what better time than now for OpenAI and Microsoft to throw their hats into the generative search ring? (After all, it’s not like that heat is turning people off to generative AI. As a tech tool, it just hit the milestone of 100-plus million monthly users in the United States, up 900% from 2022 and expected to grow to 127.2 million per month in 2026.)
Microsoft’s generative search announcement tried to put a priority on Bing’s ease of use and sourcing of where that information came from. We’ll have to take it from an actual Bing user to know whether its summary and accompanying bullet points is a step up from the Bing norm, however.
“I know that this feature isn’t fully rolled out yet, but as a Bing and Edge user (we exist!), I hope it’s either opt-in or comes with an off switch,” writes The Verge’s Emma Roth. “Cutting off search descriptions after two lines is especially troublesome and would make it more difficult for me to peruse through the first page of actual search results.”
But Bing was never the reason for me to write this article (nor for you to be reading it). The big mover-and-shaker here is the same company that essentially put AI on our collective radar less than two years ago. And with OpenAI’s announcement of its SearchGPT prototype, the generative search gauntlet feels legitimately thrown.
As could be expected, OpenAI tried to address publishers’ concerns, saying it is “committed to a thriving ecosystem of publishers and creators.”
“For decades, search has been a foundational way for publishers and creators to reach users,” the prototype page says. “Now, we’re using AI to enhance this experience by highlighting high quality content in a conversational interface with multiple opportunities for users to engage.
OpenAI says its search responses will have “clear, in-line, named attribution and links,” including a source-link sidebar, an interface that The Neuron calls “fast, clean and similar to Perplexity” (a “more direct” AI search engine competitor that’s seen its own share of criticism for rights infringement recently). Publishers, OpenAI says, will be able to manage how they appear.
“Importantly, SearchGPT is about search and is separate from training OpenAI’s generative AI foundation models,” the page says. “Sites can be surfaced in search results even if they opt out of generative AI training.”
That’s probably not enough for publishers such as The New York Times who are in the midst of lawsuits against the company. But for the publishers who have deals with OpenAI, from News Corp to Dotdash Meredith, this search potential is part of the reason for signing on.
“For the heavens to be in equilibrium, the relationship between technology and content must be symbiotic and provenance must be protected,” says Robert Thomson of News Corp on the prototype page. There, Nicholas Thompson, CEO of The Atlantic also adds, “AI search is going to become one of the key ways that people navigate the internet, and it’s crucial, in these early days, that the technology is built in a way that values, respects, and protects journalism and publishers.”
EMARKETER says Google Search owns 91% of the current search market with $175 billion in Search revenues and ad sales in 2023. “With SearchGPT still in its prototype stage, it will take years for OpenAI to chip away at Google’s lead,” EMARKETER forecasts.
However, all rules go out the window in a street battle. “Now that OpenAI’s made the first move,” The Neuron says, “Google might have to counterpunch and ‘roll back’ the rollback.
“Before, you could argue that ChatGPT was an alternative (but not a direct competitor) to Google. With SearchGPT, you can’t. This is OpenAI saying, ‘We’re coming for you, Google,” says The Neuron. “[SearchGPT is] precisely the type of product people say will be the future of search — give me the answer, not a bunch of links for me to find it myself.”
As link-makers, publishers should keep a close eye on the battle and all its fallout.
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