The launch of OpenAI‘s ChatGPT in November 2022 sent shockwaves through the tech world. This highly advanced chatbot can engage in human-like conversation, answer complex questions, and even write creative fiction. Many have speculated that ChatGPT could upend the search industry and pose a serious threat to Google‘s dominance. But while there‘s no doubt ChatGPT is an impressive feat of AI engineering, the notion that it will replace Google anytime soon seems overblown.
As an artificial intelligence expert focused on search engine optimization (SEO) writing, I‘ve been closely following the buzz around ChatGPT. In this article, I‘ll take a deep dive into how ChatGPT works, how it compares to Google search, and why the two serve fundamentally different purposes. I‘ll explore the strengths and limitations of each system and share my perspective on what the future may hold for AI-powered search and knowledge discovery.
Understanding Google Search
To grasp how ChatGPT differs from Google search, it‘s important to first understand how Google works under the hood. Google‘s search engine is built on three core processes:
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Crawling: Google uses automated programs called "web crawlers" to scour the internet and discover new and updated web pages. These crawlers follow links from known pages to uncover new URLs. (Source)
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Indexing: As web crawlers discover new pages, Google processes and stores the information in its massive Search index. The index is like a library catalog for the trillions of web pages in Google‘s database. (Source)
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Ranking: When a user enters a search query, Google‘s ranking systems sort through hundreds of billions of web pages in the Search index to find the most relevant, useful results. The ranking systems consider a multitude of factors, including the words in the query, the relevance and usability of pages, the expertise of sources, and the user‘s location and settings. (Source)
Google has spent over two decades refining these processes to provide the most relevant and reliable information for searchers‘ queries. And its efforts have paid off—Google now handles over 8.5 billion searches per day and accounts for more than 90% of the global search engine market share. (Source)
How ChatGPT Works
ChatGPT, on the other hand, takes a fundamentally different approach. Rather than indexing existing information, ChatGPT generates new text based on patterns learned from training data.
At its core, ChatGPT is a large language model (LLM)—a type of deep learning algorithm designed to recognize, predict, and generate human languages. LLMs are trained on vast amounts of text data, which they mine for statistical patterns. They learn to guess the next most likely word in a sequence given the words that come before it. (Source)
ChatGPT was trained on a dataset of 570GB of text, including books, articles, and websites. By ingesting and learning from this diverse corpus, ChatGPT gained a broad knowledge base and the ability to engage in open-ended dialogue. (Source)
When a user enters a prompt or query, ChatGPT doesn‘t pull relevant information from an index as Google does. Instead, it generates an original response word-by-word based on its training. It predicts the most probable next token (word, subword, or character) based on the tokens that come before it—a process known as autoregressive generation. (Source)
While this approach enables ChatGPT to produce impressively fluent and coherent text, it also comes with significant limitations—which I‘ll explore in more detail later.
Comparing ChatGPT and Google Head-to-Head
To illustrate the differences between ChatGPT and Google, let‘s look at some head-to-head comparisons on sample queries.
Query: "What are the health benefits of practicing yoga daily?"
ChatGPT produces a succinct, straightforward response:
"Practicing yoga daily can offer several health benefits, including:
- Improved flexibility and strength
- Better posture and balance
- Reduced stress and anxiety
- Enhanced breathing and lung capacity
- Better sleep quality
- Increased focus and concentration
- Lower risk of injury
- Potential weight loss
- Improved heart health
- Greater self-awareness and mindfulness
Incorporating yoga into your daily routine, even for just 15-20 minutes, can contribute to overall physical and mental wellbeing. However, it‘s important to learn proper techniques from a qualified instructor and listen to your body to avoid injury."
Google‘s search results page, on the other hand, contains a variety of information and resources:
- Top results from authoritative health and wellness websites, like Healthline and WebMD, with overviews of yoga‘s scientifically-backed benefits
- A "People also ask" box with related questions like "What are 10 benefits of yoga?" and "Is 20 minutes of yoga a day enough?"
- An image carousel showing different yoga poses
- Videos demonstrating yoga routines for beginners
- A map with local yoga studios
- Scholarly articles from medical journals on yoga‘s impact on specific health conditions
While ChatGPT provides a solid general overview, Google‘s results dig deeper and offer multiple avenues for further exploration. Users can cross-reference information across different reputable sources to get a more comprehensive understanding.
Query: "Who won the 2022 FIFA World Cup?"
ChatGPT responds: "The 2022 FIFA World Cup was won by Argentina, who defeated France in the final match on December 18, 2022. The match ended in a 3-3 draw after extra time, with Argentina ultimately winning 4-2 on penalties. This marked Argentina‘s third World Cup title and their first since 1986."
A Google search returns:
- Top news stories from sports media outlets recapping the final match
- A knowledge panel with Argentina‘s roster, path through the knockout round, and previous World Cup wins
- Highlights videos from the final
- A "People also search for" section with queries related to standout players, iconic moments, and other 2022 World Cup matches
- Links to the official FIFA website with detailed statistics and post-game analysis
Again, while ChatGPT succinctly answers the question, Google provides a more immersive experience with multimedia content and avenues for deeper exploration.
For queries with a clear factual answer, ChatGPT often does a decent job of providing a concise, straightforward response (assuming the information was included in its training data). But for more open-ended or multifaceted queries, Google‘s ability to surface a range of relevant information from multiple high-quality sources still gives it a significant edge.
Google‘s AI Advantage
It‘s worth noting that Google is no stranger to AI—in fact, the company has been using machine learning to improve search results for years.
In 2015, Google introduced RankBrain, an AI system that helps interpret queries and measure how well search results address them. RankBrain uses natural language processing (NLP) to decipher the meaning and intent behind ambiguous or never-before-seen queries. (Source)
Google has continued to integrate deep learning into search over the years, with initiatives like:
- BERT (2019): A transformer-based NLP model that better understands the context and nuance of search queries (Source)
- MUM (2021): A multimodal AI model that can understand and generate information across text, images, and videos (Source)
- LaMDA (2022): A large language model trained on dialogue that can engage in open-ended conversation (Source)
Google has a wealth of resources and talent dedicated to advancing AI capabilities. With decades of experience, massive datasets, and cutting-edge machine learning models, Google is well-positioned to continue leading the way in AI-powered search.
In contrast, ChatGPT is a relatively narrow application of OpenAI‘s GPT-3 language model. While impressive, it lacks the multifaceted AI capabilities and the robust search architecture that Google has built over decades.
Limitations of ChatGPT
While ChatGPT is undeniably a powerful language model, it has several significant limitations that prevent it from being a true search replacement.
Firstly, ChatGPT has no real-time knowledge of current events. It was trained on data up until 2021, so it can‘t provide information on anything that has happened since then. Google, on the other hand, continuously indexes the web to surface the freshest information.
ChatGPT is also prone to "hallucination"—confidently making false statements. Because it simply predicts the next word based on patterns in its training data, rather than drawing from a knowledge base, it can sometimes generate plausible-sounding but factually inaccurate information. This is less of an issue with Google‘s search results, which come from published sources that can be fact-checked. (Source)
Additionally, ChatGPT provides no source attribution for its outputs. Users have to blindly trust the information it provides, with no ability to verify claims or dive deeper into a topic. With Google, users can scrutinize the sources of information and make their own informed judgments.
ChatGPT also currently lacks the ability to generate or interpret visual media. It can only engage with text, whereas Google search can surface relevant images, videos, and other non-text content.
Finally, the economic model for a ChatGPT-like search engine is unproven. OpenAI‘s CEO Sam Altman has stated that ChatGPT‘s operating costs are "eye-watering," and the free research preview is unsustainable. Google, in contrast, has a well-established business model built on search advertising. In 2021, Google‘s parent company Alphabet earned over $250 billion in revenue, 80% of which came from Google Search ads. (Source) For ChatGPT to truly challenge Google, it would need a way to generate significant revenue while maintaining the quality of its outputs—a tall order.
The Future of Search
While ChatGPT is unlikely to replace Google search in the near term, it‘s clear that large language models will play an increasingly important role in how we access and interact with information online.
I believe the most likely path forward is a hybrid approach that combines the strengths of traditional search engines and large language models. Imagine a search interface powered by ChatGPT-like natural language understanding, able to engage in back-and-forth dialogue to refine queries. But rather than generating responses from scratch, it would synthesize information from top web results (vetted for quality and accuracy by Google‘s ranking systems).
This type of AI-augmented search could provide the best of both worlds: the conversational interface and query comprehension of chatbots with the vast knowledge base and information retrieval capabilities of search engines. Established players like Google, Microsoft (with Bing and ChatGPT), and Apple (with Siri) are best-positioned to develop and scale this hybrid approach.
We‘re already seeing early signs of this trend. For example, the AI-powered search engine You.com uses large language models to provide conversational search, but augments its output with information from trusted sources and provides links for further reading. Similarly, the search engine Neeva uses GPT-3 to provide direct answers to factual questions by summarizing web results, while still including source links. As these technologies mature, we can expect more search engines to adopt AI-powered features alongside traditional web crawling and indexing.
However, any company looking to integrate language models into search will need to grapple with issues of misinformation, bias, and source verification. Google has spent years developing quality control systems like its Search Quality Raters Guidelines, which emphasize expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) as key factors in evaluating search results. (Source) For AI-generated search results to be reliable, they‘ll need robust frameworks for assessing the credibility and accuracy of their outputs.
Conclusion
ChatGPT is an impressive technology that hints at the future of human-computer interaction. But it‘s not a replacement for Google search—at least not yet. While ChatGPT excels at generating fluent, contextually relevant text, it lacks the real-time knowledge, information retrieval capabilities, and quality control mechanisms that make Google a trusted source of information for billions of users worldwide.
In the coming years, we can expect to see more AI-powered features integrated into traditional search engines, combining the strengths of large language models and web indexing. The rise of ChatGPT has certainly put pressure on search giants to innovate, but it‘s unlikely to unseat them in the near term.
As an AI practitioner and search expert, I‘m excited to see how these technologies evolve and shape the future of information-seeking online. One thing is certain: we‘re entering a new era of search, where the lines between traditional web crawling, knowledge bases, and conversational AI will increasingly blur. Buckle up—it‘s going to be an exciting ride.
