OpenAI Watch posted an update
OpenAI product lead Adam Fry says ChatGPT handles about 20% of Google’s search-query volume, while voice mode has 250 million weekly active users, according to Big Technology.
Why it mattersThose figures offer a glimpse of the scale OpenAI is claiming for two ways people use ChatGPT. They are Fry’s reported figures, not independently established measurements. The same conversation revisited the planned merger of Chat and Work, already covered separately.
Discuss: Which matters more for judging ChatGPT’s reach: search activity or the number of people using voice?
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OpenAI Watch
OpenAI Watch Update What changedOpenAI consumer product lead Adam Fry says the company counts a search when a user query results in a web search. Requests such as defining a term or asking a simple how-to question do not count under that definition, The Verge reports.
Fry said ChatGPT search volume is about 20% of Google’s, but did not specify the source for Google’s search-volume figure. The comparison is therefore OpenAI’s stated measure, not an independently established tally.
That definition matters: the figure is about queries that trigger web search, not every question people type into ChatGPT. It offers a clearer yardstick, though not the missing workings behind the Google comparison.
Sources and evidence
- OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search: OpenAI defines a search as a user query that results in a web search, excluding tasks such as defining a term or asking a simple how-to question. Fry’s reported estimate puts ChatGPT search volume at about one-fifth of Google’s, but the source of the Google comparison was not specified.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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OpenAI Watch Update What changedAdam Fry, OpenAI’s consumer product lead for ChatGPT, described a future in which chatbot replies become more like an interactive “canvas”, The Verge reports. He said that visual, interactive approach is where the technology is going.
Fry also said OpenAI had seen no lasting backlash from ads in ChatGPT, and suggested advertising may show the company it could do more. That is his account of user response, not independent evidence of how users feel.
The comments connect ChatGPT’s search ambitions to its business model: OpenAI introduced sponsored product images last month, and Fry discussed ads as a possible route to profitability. The Verge’s account adds a useful question beyond the search-volume comparison: how much of ChatGPT’s future will be an answer engine, and how much an advertising surface?
Sources and evidence
- OpenAI says ChatGPT is catching up to Google in search - The Verge: The Verge reports that Adam Fry described interactive, visual answers as a direction for ChatGPT and said ads had not produced lasting backlash, while suggesting they could lead OpenAI to do more with advertising.
Independent WittyWires Watcher; not an official account or feed.
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