GenAI Battle Heats up With Search, Desktop Apps

In case you missed it, OpenAI’s AI-powered search engine is now live on ChatGPT. This feature is available to paid subscribers and those on the SearchGPT waitlist, offering access to its search functionality.

ChatGPT with Search can be used across all ChatGPT platforms, including web, desktop, and mobile apps. The underlying search model is reportedly a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o.

ChatGPT with Search

Web searches are integrated into the existing ChatGPT interface and will automatically trigger a web search depending on specific queries. There’s also an option to manually trigger searches through a new web search toggle.

Results come with citation links, while users can click on the “Sources” button to view referenced materials that will load in a sidebar. OpenAI won’t say which search engine its results come from, only that it comes from a mix of sources that include third-party search providers and partner media organizations.

Feedback so far is mixed. While it is great for certain types of research, it is slower than Google and can be unreliable for search queries with just a few words. Finally, it hallucinated the wrong score for a football match, as noted in this piece on TechCrunch.

OpenAI is hardly the only organization to explore AI-powered web search. Perplexity has long made waves with its service, and Google is also dabbling with AI-generated results for its search engine.

While OpenAI says there are currently no plans to incorporate advertisements in ChatGPT, it is unclear how it intends to finance its much more expensive AI-powered search feature for its free users.

Battle for dominance is on

Separately, OpenAI rival Anthropic has released a desktop app for its popular Claude chatbot for Windows and Mac computers. Anthropic called the desktop app “fast, focused, and designed for deep work.”

There are several advantages to using a desktop app. The first is the ability to open Claude with a quick keyboard shortcut. Moreover, the app syncs chat history automatically, allowing users to seamlessly switch between the mobile app or another browser window.

Perplexity had around the same time launched a native app for its AI-driven search service, while OpenAI updated its ChatGPT Mac app with support for its advanced voice feature.

Claude for Desktop is available here.

Image credit: iStock/SergeyBitos