OpenAI Considers Taking on Google With Browser

OpenAI is preparing to launch a frontal assault on Google.

The ChatGPT owner recently considered developing a web browser that it would combine with its chatbot, and it has separately discussed or struck deals to power search features for travel, food, real estate and retail websites, according to people who have seen prototypes or designs of the products. OpenAI has spoken about the search product with website and app developers such as Condé Nast, Redfin, Eventbrite and Priceline, these people said.

OpenAI also has discussed powering artificial intelligence features on devices made by Samsung, a key Google business partner, similar to a deal OpenAI recently struck with Apple, according to people who were briefed about the situation at OpenAI.

OpenAI could decide not to launch the browser, though earlier this year it hired two people who were instrumental in the development of Google’s Chrome browser.

If OpenAI launches some or all of these products, it would become an even bigger competitor to Google, which dominates the browser market with Chrome and the search market with Google Search, and powers Samsung’s phones with its Android software. More recently, Google’s Gemini AI began powering features on Samsung devices, such as providing a text summary of a voice recording or using image-generating technology to edit photos.

The state of talks between Samsung and OpenAI couldn’t be learned, but Google has been preparing for the possibility of competing with OpenAI to power such features, said a person with knowledge of the situation. For Samsung, it makes sense to have more than one potential provider of such technology as it negotiates the terms of deals.

A Google spokesperson said companies using Android can work with other technology providers. Spokespeople for OpenAI and the companies that OpenAI is talking to about search features either didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment or didn’t have a comment on the record.

Google has been scrambling to catch up to OpenAI on the AI chatbot front. Last year it launched its Gemini chatbot and made search results more conversational, mimicking ChatGPT.

ChatGPT generates billions of dollars a year in revenue from subscriptions and has added searchlike features that show real-time information from the web, in part with the help of Microsoft’s search technology. But ChatGPT hasn’t visibly hurt Google search yet, even if some people are using it as a partial replacement for Google.

Still, ChatGPT is growing quickly and currently dominates the nascent market for AI chatbots. Making a web browser could help OpenAI have more control over a primary gateway through which people use the web, as well as further boost ChatGPT, which has more than 300 million weekly users just two years after its launch. It isn’t clear how a ChatGPT browser’s features would differ from those of other browsers.

In a signal of its interest in a browser, several months ago OpenAI hired Ben Goodger, a founding member of the Chrome team at Google. Another recent hire is Darin Fisher, who worked with Goodger to develop Chrome.

But OpenAI isn’t remotely close to launching a browser, multiple people said. Launching a browser is timely and complicated because browser providers need to ensure people’s data doesn’t leak to websites, and the browser needs to work with various types of extensions to adequately compete with incumbent browsers, among other things.

Browsers could play an important role as companies such as Google and OpenAI prepare to launch AI agents, which can control a browser and take multistep actions on behalf of people, such as conducting web research or handling data entry or coding-related tasks.

‘Build a Moat’

OpenAI’s browser move would resemble Google’s development of the Chrome browser nearly 20 years ago when its leaders, including now-CEO Sundar Pichai, became afraid Microsoft would leverage its Internet Explorer browser to stop people from using Google Search.

Chrome has since become the most-used browser. That has helped expand the usage of Google Search, which is baked into the browser. It also has given Google an extraordinary array of data on how people use the web, aiding its various advertising and other businesses.

“OpenAI is a little bit like Google in the old days,” said Brendan Eich, CEO of Brave Software, which operates a privacy-focused browser with more than 30 million daily active users, plus a search engine that handles more than 30 million queries per day and which powers search features for numerous AI developers.

Google didn’t control the way people reached its services “and then they learned, ‘We have to do Chrome, we have to do Android, to build a moat.’ OpenAI is in a similar situation,” he said.

Chrome’s position suddenly looks precarious: Next year, a judge will rule on the Justice Department’s request, made on Wednesday, to force Google to sell Chrome as a penalty for operating an illegal monopoly in search.

It isn’t clear how many website publishers or apps have officially agreed to launch OpenAI’s search chatbot technology on their sites. The new product is called NLWeb, or Natural Language Web, said one of the people who has seen a prototype.

Over the past year, OpenAI has struck numerous financial agreements with publishers and app developers in which it pays them to use their content to develop AI. OpenAI’s product to power conversational search for the sites has been discussed as part of broader deals and in some cases separately from such deals. In some cases, OpenAI has discussed the possibility that publishers pay a relatively small amount of money for the service, said a person with knowledge of it.

Changing the Web

OpenAI has pitched the product as a way for websites to fundamentally change how they interact with their readers or customers, making people accustomed to talking to websites the same way they talk to ChatGPT.

Someone visiting a clothing retailer’s website, for instance, could ask the search function what kind of coat would make sense for a trip they’re planning a trip to another country. And someone visiting a cooking site, such as Bon Appétit, could ask the site what type of dishes would go well with tikka masala, for instance.

OpenAI’s AI would then help the retailer or cooking site show the most relevant results—in the above cases, images of coats or links to specific recipes.

This isn’t the first time OpenAI has attempted to connect its conversational AI with other apps. Last March, the startup launched ChatGPT plug-ins, which allowed chatbot users to take actions with the aid of external apps, such as ordering groceries with Instacart or booking reservations using OpenTable—all without leaving ChatGPT. However, the feature struggled to gain traction because it was often more difficult to use than visiting the external apps themselves. OpenAI shut it down earlier this year.

The NLWeb search product would compete with similar products from Google Cloud and other firms, though OpenAI has said its upcoming product performs better because it uses the startup’s market-leading conversational AI. Other apps and website publishers have used OpenAI’s large language models to develop their own search features on their sites or apps.

Companies such as Redfin, a real estate broker that operates a realty search site, have previously launched features that allow their customers to talk to ChatGPT to search for content on their sites.

The new OpenAI search product would be more directly integrated with the publisher sites. And it could theoretically help OpenAI improve the results ChatGPT provides in response to questions involving topics such as real estate or retail products.