Sam Altman Dismisses Rumors of Search Product Launch Ahead of Google I/O
OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman has quashed speculation that the artificial intelligence research company is set to unveil a search engine product to rival Google. Rumors had been swirling that OpenAI would launch a search offering on Monday, just a day before Google’s annual I/O developer conference.
In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Altman stated unequivocally that OpenAI’s upcoming announcement is “not gpt-5, not a search engine.” He did, however, tease that the company has “been hard at work on some new stuff we think people will love,” describing it as something that “feels like magic” to him.
The only concrete details provided by OpenAI so far are that Monday’s 10 AM PT launch will include updates on its popular language model ChatGPT and the latest iteration, GPT-4.
Altman’s denial comes after reports from Reuters claimed OpenAI was readying a search product launch aimed at upstaging Google’s own AI announcements at I/O. Other outlets like The Verge had reported OpenAI was aggressively recruiting Google employees to build out a search team.
While a ChatGPT-powered search engine may still be on the horizon, it seems OpenAI has something entirely different up its sleeve for next week’s unveiling. The AI world will have to stay tuned to see what “magical” new capabilities Altman and his team have in store.
