San Francisco, CA – According to an insider, a highly anticipated announcement from the artificial intelligence company OpenAI could shake up the search engine landscape. Jimmy Apple, a source familiar with OpenAI’s plans, revealed that the company is preparing to host an event on May 9th at 10 a.m., where they may unveil a new search engine product.
“They were advertising for in-house events staff and events marketing back in January, and they just hired an events manager last month,” Apples stated, suggesting OpenAI has been gearing up for a major launch.
Apples also hinted that OpenAI could release its next groundbreaking model at a potential event in June. However, he remained vague on details, referring to it only as “whatever Sam [Altman, OpenAI’s CEO] decides to call it.”
Heightened Activity at OpenAI
The rumored plans come amid a flurry of activity at the AI company. Apples noted at least 50 new async subdomains created by OpenAI since April 24th, indicating significant preparations are underway.
If the rumors prove true, OpenAI’s unveiling of a Google Search alternative could precede Google’s own I/O event scheduled for May 14th. This move may also render Microsoft’s Perplexity AI redundant, especially after the tech giant recently banned its employees from using the tool due to security concerns.
Competing with Search Giants
Reports suggest OpenAI has been developing a web search product to intensify competition with the current market leader of Google. Microsoft’s Bing search engine is expected to partially powered this new search service.
In a recent podcast, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman expressed excitement about combining large language models with search capabilities, an area he believes has yet to be fully cracked. “The intersection of LLMs plus search, I don’t think anyone has cracked the code yet. I would love to go do that. I think that would be cool,” Altman stated.
However, Altman also clarified that OpenAI does not aim to build a better version of Google Search, which he finds “boring.” Instead, he envisions “a much better way to help people find, act on, and synthesize information” beyond just listing web links.
