Updated:

OpenAI is reportedly set to take on Google LLC in the internet search market with a new artificial intelligence-powered search product that could be launched as soon as Monday.

Citing two sources familiar with the matter, Reuters reported that the announcement date, which could be subject to change, may be intentionally timed to be announced directly before Google’s annual I/O conference next week, where Google is expected to announce a range of new AI products.

Update: However, OpenAI itself Friday said it would announce updates at 10 a.m. PDT Monday to its chatbot ChatGPT and AI model GPT-4, with no mention of a search service. “Not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we’ve been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love! feels like magic to me,” Chief Executive Sam Altman wrote on X Friday.

The Information also reported late Friday that OpenAI may introduce a chatbot with the ability to talk to people with a voice, not just text, and also recognize objects and images.

Reports that OpenAI was preparing a search product to compete with Google first emerged earlier this week. Bloomberg reported on May 7 that the new search feature would not only take on Google but also upstart AI-powered search provider Perplexity AI Inc.

The reference to Perplexity is apt, with reports suggesting that the new OpenAI search service will work similarly. Perplexity searches the web and gives referenced answers from online sources and the OpenAI service reportedly does the same. Perplexity was founded by a former OpenAI researcher.

One version of the search service also use images alongside written responses to questions. In one example, if a user asked how to change a doorknob, the results might include a diagram to illustrate the task.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has often struggled with searching the web and delivering relevant answers based on live data. Although the paid version of ChatGPT can search the web, the current results it gives pale in comparison with the rich and referenced results given by Perplexity. The notion that ChatGPT might be looking to deliver a similar experience does not come as a surprise to Perplexity’s more than 10 million users.

The decision by OpenAI to enter the search market — presuming the reports are accurate — comes at a time when rivals to the market-leading AI service are growing in capabilities, user numbers and funding.

ChatGPT may have been early to market and established itself as a market leader, but as has been the case in various segments, among them internet search, there is always an omnipresent risk of an upstart taking market share and even coming to dominate a market.  The best example of that is what Google once did against competitors such as Altavista, Yahoo and other early web search engines.

Search, if done well and particularly at a time when Google search is increasingly seen by many as broken, could be the next big thing for OpenAI.

Image: SiliconANGLE/DALL-E 3