OpenAI said on Thursday it is selectively rolling out SearchGPT, an artificial intelligence-powered search engine with real time access to the information from the internet.

The move puts the Microsoft-backed startup in direct competition with Google, the dominant search engine in the market.

Following OpenAI's announcement, shares of Google's parent company, Alphabet fell 2% after OpenAI's announcement.

OpenAI said it has opened sign-ups for the new tool, which is currently in the prototype stage and is being tested with a small group of users and publishers.

In a blog post, OpenAI said SearchGPT will provide summarized search results with source links in response to user queries. They will also be able to ask follow-up questions and receive contextual responses.

The company also said it will be integrating the best features of SearchGPT directly into ChatGPT in the future.

Major search engines have been trying to integrate AI into search since ChatGPT first launched in November 2022. OpenAI’s biggest backer, Microsoft, has AI-powered Bing search, while Google rolled out AI-powered summaries for the wider public at its developer conference in May.

Reuters had earlier reported on OpenAI's plans around AI search in May.

  - Reuters