OpenAI’s SearchGPT may increase publisher traffic

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OpenAI‘s head of media partnerships, Varun Shetty, recently stated that the company does not intend to share advertising revenue from its SearchGPT product with publishers. During his address at the Twipe Digital Growth Summit in Brussels, Shetty highlighted OpenAI’s belief that it can provide value to publishers by driving significant traffic from new audiences rather than offering financial compensation. He also acknowledged the importance of a mutually beneficial relationship and indicated that OpenAI is exploring ways to ensure publishers find enough value to remain included in SearchGPT results.

Varun Shetty compared OpenAI’s approach to that of Google’s AI Overviews, which have been criticised for diminishing publishers’ visibility in search results. In contrast, the AI-powered search engine Perplexity has established revenue-sharing agreements with multiple publishers, and Microsoft has announced plans to pay publishers for content featured by its productivity assistant, Copilot. Currently, in an experimental phase, SearchGPT aims to provide answers in natural language while clearly indicating sources. OpenAI intends to integrate SearchGPT into its flagship ChatGPT product by the end of the year.

Shetty stressed the need to balance user experience with publisher needs, noting that while users seek answers, they also want to verify information. He assured publishers they could opt out of SearchGPT results if desired, and any publisher wanting to participate only needs to permit OpenAI’s search bot on their site. He emphasised that SearchGPT has the potential to drive significant traffic without complicating the decision-making regarding content training.

In addition to discussing SearchGPT, Shetty expressed how OpenAI could assist the news industry, noting that while audiences are not interested in AI-generated news, AI can help streamline journalistic tasks, such as story recommendations and multimedia management. He also hinted at advancements in the next GPT model, which will enable more complex user requests, enhancing its usefulness for various applications.