CEO Sam Altman and OpenAI executives held a Reddit AMA to answer questions, including those about ChatGPT Search, providing an inside look at how it works. Their answers offer insights into what SEO may look like in the immediate future.
The people from OpenAI answering the questions:
Sam Altman, CEO
Kevin Weil, Chief Product Officer
Mark Chen, SVP of Research
Srinivas Narayanan, VP Engineering
Why ChatGPT Search Is Important
ChatGPT Search is not a search engine, it’s an AI chatbot with search, which means it doesn’t compete with Google as a search engine, it simply replaces it with something else that people already use for work and play. Now it has additional utility as an assistant in daily life and search.
Another advantage to ChatGPT Search is that it doesn’t show advertising nor does it follow users around the Internet. Users already trust ChatGPT with personal and business information so it’s already has goodwill with users.
What makes ChatGPT Search a threat to Google is that Users are already familiar with ChatGPT and have good feelings about it. Because it’s already in use there is no switching away from Google to break the habit of searching with Google.
Sam Altman On Why ChatGPT Search Is Better
In the Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, a Redditor asked OpenAI CEO what the value of ChatGPT Search is over other search engines.
The person asked:
“My question is about the value ChatGPT Search offers compared to popular search engines. What are the unique advantages or key differentiators of ChatGPT Search that would make it worthwhile for a typical search engine user to choose it?
Sam Altman answered:
“For many queries, I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for. I think we’ll see this especially for queries that require more complex research. I also look forward to a future where a search query can dynamically render a custom web page in response!”
That bit about a “custom web page” is something to look out for because it hints at personalization based on what a user is searching for.
Complex Queries Are ChatGPT’s Advantage
Altman’s response about ChatGPT Search’s handling of complex queries calls attention to an advantage over Google. ChatGPT users are accustomed to using natural language, whereas Google users habitually use keyword searches. Keyword searches disadvantages Google because it’s harder to understand those queries, which is why Google displays People Also Ask features in Search.
Natural language queries is the way users interact with ChatGPT and that is an advantage for ChatGPT Search.
Grounding For Better Answers
The next question was about OpenAI’s progress on preventing ChatGPT from making things up (aka hallucinations) and also about how it’s going to incorporate fresh data to the index.
Both problems are generally approached with a technology and technique called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) which selects data from an up to date database like a search index or a knowledge graph and then provides that to the LLM-based chatbot to summarize and use as a base for an answer.
This is the question:
“Are hallucinations going to be a permanent feature? Why is it that even o1-preview, when approaching the end of a “thought” hallucinates more and more?
How will you handle old data (even 2-years old) that is now no longer “true”? Continuously train models or some sort of garbage collection? It’s a big issue in the truthfulness aspect.”
The answer was given by Mark Chen, SVP of Research