In many circles, "Ask Chat" has apparently replaced "Google it," and OpenAI would like you to know it: the volume of search queries run through ChatGPT now equals 20 percent of the volume run through Google.

Adam Fry, OpenAI's consumer product lead for ChatGPT, dropped the number at a press event on Monday. The company defines a search as any query that results in a web search - as opposed to tasks like defining a term or a simple how-to explanation - and Fry did not specify where the Google search volume figure came from, which is the kind of detail one notices when one is the sort of person who asks follow-up questions.

One-fifth of Google is still a long way from overtaking it, but consider the benchmark: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said during Google's 2023 antitrust trial that Bing held about 3 percent of the search engine market share after trying for more than a decade. During that same trial, Google described AI as a potential disruptor and argued ChatGPT was poised to seriously compete with it - and now OpenAI seems to agree, which is at least consistent. OpenAI likely uses Microsoft Bing for a significant part of its searches, along with its in-house search index, though there is still some speculation that it routes some queries through Google, a delicious bit of circularity if true.

The announcement lands amid an ongoing search engine shake-up. Google continues to reduce conventional referrals to third-party sites and invests heavily in AI tools - not just AI Overview but additional generative AI capabilities, including personalized search results with visualizations and charts. Meanwhile, as queries increasingly route through OpenAI and other AI labs' services, other companies are investing in the same types of AI-focused search experience, even if they call it something else. For OpenAI, it's "Intelligent UI" - creating a visual and interactive interface within a chatbot response. "That's where the future of this technology goes. You're talking to a canvas," Fry said, presumably while gesturing at a canvas.

Much like Google, OpenAI sees a potential path to profitability through ads, particularly as it approaches an IPO potentially slated for early next year. OpenAI has defended its ads in the past, and Fry told reporters they hadn't produced a lasting backlash. "Ads have not negatively impacted the product or the usage of the product," he said, adding that "most people do not seem to mind ads in the product." OpenAI announced last month that the company would begin introducing images of sponsored products and services in ChatGPT rather than just a company's name, logo, and a link to its product like before.

And in a moment of candor that ad executives will surely frame and hang on the wall, Fry conceded: "Ads have maybe shown us that we could be doing this more, actually."