Meta is building an AI-powered search engine to reduce its reliance on Google and Microsoft’s Bing, The Information reports. 

A web-crawling system, which Meta has been developing for months, will support the new search tool. This system will create an internal database of web content for its AI to access and provide users with answers.

The report says the web crawler is designed to deliver conversational responses through Meta AI, which is the chatbot available on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Currently, Meta uses Google and Bing to provide users with information. The company aims to use its new AI search engine to integrate answers into its chatbot.

The AI search engine market is getting very competitive. OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft are all vying for the top spot. Google is currently integrating its latest AI, Gemini, into its core products, including Search. OpenAI is testing its search prototype, SearchGPT.

This move comes amid ongoing debates about AI companies' use of web content. Several companies, including OpenAI and Perplexity AI, are being sued by news publishers. The lawsuits are over copyright issues due to unauthorized data scraping.

Produced by
Nelson Oboh
Today's news
Meta