OpenAI to integrate SearchGPT into ChatGPT before 2024 ends

OpenAI’s SearchGPT, which the company said was a temporary prototype when it launched in July, will be integrated into ChatGPT “by the end of the year.”

That’s according to Varun Shetty, OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, speaking at an event for news publishers on Monday, as reported by PressGazette.

No ad revenue sharing. When it comes to SearchGPT/ChatGPT, it sounds like publishers can only expect to be “paid” in clicks and traffic. He also pointed out that searchers today want answers, not just a collection of links.

Here are some quotes from Shetty’s appearance at the Twipe Digital Growth Summit in Brussels:

• “We think there’s an opportunity here to drive significant incremental traffic from new audiences. And then we’ll have to see if that is valuable enough to partners to remain opted-in.
• “This will be something that we’re thinking a lot about, but I think we’re going to start with this proposition of traffic.
• “What we want to do is really balance the user experience of wanting to find an answer about recent events or information with the publisher need to be correctly attributed, sourced and have traffic driven back to their sites.
• “Again, what we’re trying to do here is create as much surface area as possible for people to have an information-dense experience, but also to create opportunities for click-through.
• “We do believe that they want to go further, that they want to click through to verify what they’re seeing, that they want to click through because they’re curious and want to learn more, and that they click through because they trust the source that they’re seeing and they want to just get a deeper understanding of the information that’s being presented to them.”

AI-generated news. Nobody wants to read it, according to Shetty. But generative AI can help journalists and content creators “up-level or down-level” writing “to help reach different audiences”, to translate it or to transform it from text into audio or video.

• “No one wants to read AI-generated news. But can we make it easier for journalists to recommend stories? To find the right photos within the CMS? To create that context box that sits along the side?”

Why we care. Despite having around 10,000 U.S. users, SearchGPT is driving more traffic than Perplexity for many large brands, according to enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge. However, any ad revenue news publishers would see would likely be insignificant – likely pennies on the dollar.

While ChatGPT won’t be challenging Google’s search dominance anytime soon, ChatGPT has a legitimate shot at becoming a player in the search space. Considering ChatGPT’s large user base, generative engine optimization (GEO) will become an even more critical part of your SEO strategy.

The report. OpenAI exec rules out sharing revenue from SearchGPT with publishers, for now