Meta Platforms is working on an artificial intelligence-based search engine, as it seeks to reduce dependence on Alphabet’s Google and Microsoft’s Bing, The Information reported.
The AI search engine segment is heating up with ChatGPT maker OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft competing for dominance in the rapidly evolving market. According to the report, Meta’s Internet search engine will provide summaries generated by artificial intelligence (AI) technology of current events within the company’s chatbot.
A dedicated engineering team at Meta has been working for about eight months to build an information database for their chatbot. The web crawler will provide conversational responses to users about current events in Meta AI, the company’s chatbot on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. The Facebook owner currently relies on Google and Bing search engines to give users answers about news, stocks, and sports.
Google is aggressively integrating its latest and most powerful AI model, Gemini, into core products like Search, aiming to deliver more conversational and intuitive search experiences. OpenAI relies on its largest investor, Microsoft, to access the web and respond to topical queries, using its Bing search engine. In July, OpenAI introduced a search engine prototype called “SearchGPT” with plans to integrate this feature directly into ChatGPT.
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Meta announced a multi-year partnership with Reuters news agency on October 25 to integrate AI-powered chat features into its platforms, its first foray into news content in several years. The company said its AI chatbot will use Reuters content to answer users’ questions in real-time about news and current events. Meta has also worked on creating location data that could compete with Google Maps.
Web data scraping for training AI models and search engines has raised concerns about copyright infringement and fair compensation for content creators. Meta’s shift toward integrating news with its AI chatbot represents a departure from its efforts to minimize news and political content on its main platforms. Following controversies in recent years, including the discontinuation of the “News Tab” and reduced emphasis on political news after 2020, the tech giant had largely distanced itself from news-focused features. However, the new AI agreement suggests a possible return to news in a more controlled capacity, targeting users who actively seek news rather than passively receiving it in their feeds.
Additionally, Apple’s recent work on App Store search tools showed how it “has what it needs” for its own AI-powered replacement for Google’s search engine, according to a Bloomberg report from last month.
