The San Francisco-based startup has launched a prototype of its search engine, which responds to user queries with AI answers, and also provides citations and links to the stories from which it’s drawing. The tool will initially be open to select testers and publishers. (The Logic)

Talking point: Google is the behemoth of search, with the ads that run beside its results bringing in US$175 billion of revenue for parent company Alphabet last year, making up more than half its total revenue. OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in November 2022 reportedly triggered a “code red” at Google, which saw the bot as a threat to its search bar. Among its countermoves was a new AI overview feature, which summarizes the content of the links underlying responses. (Users reported odd and inaccurate answers, and SearchGPT already seems to have similar issues.) OpenAI’s move into search would also affect key partner Microsoft, which added the startup’s large language models to its Bing search in an effort to take market share from Google.