OpenAI has increasingly tried to position ChatGPT as a kind of everything app that offers a search engine, voice assistant and video generator. — Unsplash
OpenAI now lets users shop for products within ChatGPT, the latest move by the artificial intelligence startup to expand the reach of its popular chatbot and challenge rivals like Google.
With the new option, announced April 28, users can quickly compare products and click a link within ChatGPT to make a purchase on an external website. To start, the feature only works for a handful of categories, including electronics, fashion, beauty and home goods, with plans to expand to more over time. The shopping tool is available to all of ChatGPT’s 500 million active users, as well as to those who are not logged into the chatbot.
OpenAI has increasingly tried to position ChatGPT as a kind of everything app that offers a search engine, voice assistant and video generator. The effort is intended to increase how much time users spend with the chatbot and also help ChatGPT stay ahead of rival services from Anthropic, Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Elon Musk’s xAI. Perplexity AI Inc, an AI search startup, has also expanded with more shopping features.
The shopping feature, one of several updates OpenAI rolled out Monday, puts the chatbot in more direct competition with other online sources of consumer recommendations and reviews, such as CNET and the New York Times Co’s Wirecutter. An OpenAI spokesperson said the company won’t collect affiliate revenue for purchases made via ChatGPT.
Search is one of the chatbot’s most popular and swiftest-growing features, OpenAI said, with more than 1 billion web searches conducted via ChatGPT last week. – Bloomberg
