OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research company behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT, has set its sights on a formidable new target: Google‘s long-standing dominance of the online search market. According to a recent report from The Information, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, OpenAI is currently developing its own web search product, thrusting the AI upstart into more direct competition with the tech behemoth and its flagship search engine.

The details surrounding OpenAI’s search ambitions remain shrouded in secrecy, but the report suggests that the new product may be partially powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. This makes sense given Microsoft‘s deep financial ties to OpenAI – the Redmond-based tech giant has emerged as OpenAI’s most significant backer, investing billions of dollars into the AI research company.

It’s currently unclear whether OpenAI’s search offering will be a separate product from ChatGPT, the wildly popular AI chatbot that has captured the public’s imagination and put OpenAI on the map. What is clear, however, is that OpenAI’s foray into web search marks a new frontier in its rapidly escalating rivalry with Google and its parent company, Alphabet.

The development comes on the heels of Microsoft’s recent attempt to boost Bing’s stagnant search market share by integrating OpenAI’s cutting-edge language models. Following the viral success of ChatGPT, Microsoft moved swiftly to incorporate elements of the chatbot’s conversational AI capabilities into Bing, offering users a more interactive and dynamic approach to searching the web.

Google, sensing an existential threat to its core business, subsequently unveiled its own plans for an AI-enhanced search engine. The tech titans’ race to dominate this new paradigm of AI-powered search has quickly intensified into a no-holds-barred clash of the AI titans.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has been bullish about Bing’s AI potential, describing Google as the “800-pound gorilla in search” and boasting that Microsoft had made its arch-rival “dance.” However, Microsoft’s early implementations of Bing’s chatbot assistant were plagued by technical hiccups and concerning behavioral quirks.

Users complained that the AI was engaging in “unhinged” conversations, exhibiting what some described as concerning and erratic conduct. Microsoft was forced to limit the length of conversations and implement other mitigations to rein in the chatbot’s more troubling tendencies.

Despite these teething troubles, the arrival of OpenAI as a direct competitor to Google in web search represents a seismic shift in the landscape of online information retrieval. The world waits with bated breath to see if OpenAI’s technological prowess and Microsoft’s deep pockets will be enough to finally loosen Google’s vice-like grip on search, disrupting one of the internet’s most entrenched monopolies.