Artificial intelligence company OpenAI is trying to challenge Google's dominance in search by asking Google to provide ChatGPT as an alternative option on Android phones and web browsers.OpenAI has asked British regulators to include its chatbot ChatGPT as one of the search engines that users can choose.
According to the measures proposed by the UK Competition and Markets Authority to open up the search market, Google will be required to display a selection interface to users in its Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system, allowing them to choose different default search engines independently.
Although traditional alternative options are search engines such as Microsoft's Bing, OpenAI believes that ChatGPT should also be included.
ChatGPT launched a search function in 2024, capable of conducting web searches on behalf of users. Although users can currently set ChatGPT as the default search engine in Chrome, additional software needs to be installed, and this option is not actively provided by Google.
Google currently provides a selection interface in the UK's Android system, but according to the CMA's new proposal, the company also needs to provide this option in the Chrome browser and regularly pop up prompts to remind users to change the default search engine.
Previously, Google faced antitrust scrutiny in the United States due to Chrome's dominance in the browser field, and once faced demands to split Chrome.
In October last year, OpenAI released ChatGPT Atlas, a new web browser powered by AI, in direct competition with Google's Chrome browser.
It is worth mentioning thatOpenAI is currently developing a desktop application that integrates the ChatGPT chatbot, programming platform Codex, and web browser ChatGPT Atlas.
