Update: Our OpenAI event live blog has all the news from the event, including the launch of ChatGPT-4o that includes a new voice assistant.
Everyone is speculating on OpenAI's event today. Many assumed the company would announce an ChatGPT-powered search engine. Others thought the firm might announce a new open-source language model for its popular ChatGPT service. OpenAI's Sam Altman put an end to those rumors with a post on X.
Altman posted on X, saying that the event's focus is "not gpt-5, not a search engine, but we've been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love!"
It "feels like magic to me. Monday 10am PT," he said to finish the post.
Of course, that only means OpenAI won't launch an AI-based search engine today. There's still a good chance the company could roll out a search tool at some point. Companies like Perplexity are heavily pushing AI search. Google, the leader in search, is experimenting with AI results in the main search feed through Search Generative Experience (SGE).
If OpenAI were to roll out a search engine at some point, there could be some substantial benefits. "The significant benefit of pairing a platform like ChatGPT with the web crawler-based search is that it allows the language model to act like your own personal search guru — not only finding you the information but presenting it in a way that is easy to understand and use," our AI expert Ryan Morrison wrote in his OpenAI search preview.
Morrison also noted that OpenAI faces an uphill battle to beat Google in search. "To beat Google at its own game, OpenAI has a bit of an uphill struggle because Google itself is working on integrating LLM-powered analysis into its search results," he wrote.
What else could OpenAI be working on if it's not a search announcement? Morrison posted some speculation on X. "Possible open-source small language model, GPT-4 coming to free ChatGPT, Updated data cutoff in ChatGPT, and still might see improved web search in ChatGPT." If any of those are accurate, it could still be a very exciting event for OpenAI and its fans.
Thankfully, we just have to wait a bit longer, as we can catch the event on Monday, May 13, 2024, at 10AM PT (1PM ET). As is the OpenAI tradition, it'll happen just before Google I/O gets underway on May 14.
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