ChatGPT Chief Calls Search Crucial for OpenAI in Google Trial

OpenAI’s goals of building a “super assistant” app and reaching general artificial intelligence won’t succeed without search technology but Google has declined to work with the startup, the head of its ChatGPT product testified Tuesday in the Google antitrust trial.

OpenAI’s Nick Turley said the company never intended to simply create a chatbot like its popular ChatGPT, and instead wanted to deliver a “super assistant” that can help users complete tasks. But the large language models that underlie the company’s chatbot have inherent limitations because of a lack of recent information and their tendency to hallucinate, or invent false answers to questions when they don’t know the answer. That’s where search capability becomes essential, he said.