Weekly Prompt: Meta’s building an AI search engine and other news

Meta reportedly building its own search engine for its AI chatbot

Meta is developing its own web search engine to power its Meta AI chatbot, according to a report by The Information. This initiative aims to reduce the company's reliance on Microsoft's Bing and Google, which currently provide web search results within the chatbot, complete with source links. Meta recently partnered with Reuters, allowing its chatbot to use Reuters news content in responses.

The new search engine, currently under development, would utilize a web crawler-similar to those used by Google and Bing-to gather information and reportedly generate AI-driven search summaries of current events within the Meta AI chatbot. Meta already employs various web crawlers for its AI projects, and these have seen increased activity recently. While building a comprehensive search engine is a significant undertaking, it aligns with Meta's broader strategy of gathering more data for its AI initiatives.

This development comes amid growing competition in the generative AI space. Microsoft and Google, Meta's current partners for chatbot search results, are also direct competitors in AI development, alongside OpenAI and its SearchGPT product. By creating its own search engine, Meta could gain more control over its data and lessen its reliance on these competitors.

Sources: The Information, Reuters, Social Media Today, The Verge

Additional prompts

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OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Search, building on the SearchGPT prototype unveiled this summer, to deliver timely answers by drawing information from the web. Integrated into the ChatGPT platform and powered by a fine-tuned GPT-4 model, ChatGPT Search provides news, sports scores, stock quotes, and images, along with links to relevant sources. Users can start web searches manually or let ChatGPT decide based on the question, with options for follow-up questions to refine results. Read more