Meta Platforms Inc. plans to integrate a custom search engine into its Meta AI chatbot, The Information reported Today.

The publication cites sources as saying the aim is to provide users with information about current events. Meta reportedly started developing the search engine more than eight months ago. The initiative would be led by Xueyuan Su, senior engineering manager at parent company Facebook.

Meta AI is a ChatGPT-like chatbot that debuted last year. It is available on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger as well as via a dedicated website.

The chatbot is powered by Llama, a series of large language models that Meta began developing early last year. The most advanced model in the series, Llama 3.1 405B, made his debut in July. It outperformed GPT-4o, one of the LLMs that powers ChatGPT, in seven of the 15 benchmarks Meta engineers compared them with.

Currently, Meta AI leverages technology from Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. to retrieve information about current events. Meta would develop its custom search engine to reduce its dependence on the two companies. With an internal search engine, there is no risk that the company’s chatbot will lose access to key information due to a change in a third-party component.

The development initiative could also provide other benefits to Meta.

Google and Microsoft provide developers with access to their respective search engines through paid application programming interfaces. By switching to an in-house search engine, Meta can avoid the fees associated with these APIs. Additionally, the company can align its search engine feature set more closely with the requirements of its chatbot than would be possible with a standard service.

It’s unclear how Meta’s search engine will work. One possibility is that it displays a standard list of links to web pages in response to queries. Alternatively, Meta may envision the service generating AI-generated answers that directly answer the user’s question.

OpenAI takes the latter route with SearchGPT, a custom search engine made his debut in July. The service responds to user queries with AI-generated answers ranging in length from one sentence to several paragraphs. Like Meta, OpenAI plans to integrate the search engine with its chatbot.

The search push reported by Meta is the latest in a series of moves designed to make Meta AI more competitive with ChatGPT.

Last week, the Facebook parent signed an agreement with Reuters to make the news agency’s content available in the chatbot. OpenAI has signed its own content licensing agreements with several publishers. In September, Meta team Meta AI with the ability to answer questions on images uploaded by the user, a capability that ChatGPT has offered since 2023.

OpenAI recently disclosed that 75% of its revenue, expected to reach $3.7 billion by the end of the year, comes from consumer subscriptions. This demand might prompt Meta to try to make money from Meta AI with a paid version. The chatbot had 185 million weekly users in August, compared to ChatGPT’s 250 million.

Image: Meta