According to a new report by The Information, Meta is working on a new AI-powered search engine. In a similar vein to Google, this search engine will reportedly provide AI-generated search summaries of web results.
Currently, Meta’s built-in AI bot, which is available on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger, uses Google and Bing to answer questions about current affairs, sports, and stocks. But now, Meta is crawling the web with its own tools to reduce its reliance on Google and Bing.
A source also claims that Meta hopes to develop this new search engine as a backup option in case Google or Microsoft want to withdraw from their current deal, which allows Meta to use Google and Bing search results.
It’s unclear whether, at this current stage, Meta pays Google and Bing for its help with all things AI. In an interview back in April 2024, for instance, Zuckerberg said that “there’s not a ton of money flowing either way.”
Nonetheless, according to The Information’s source, Meta’s AI takeover has been in the works for eight months. During this time, Meta’s search engine team has reportedly been indexing sites and categorizing them into a database.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Business Insider spotted Meta’s web crawler back in August. But it could still change the fabric of the creator economy, with Meta becoming a full-blown web search engine rather than just a social media platform host.
As The Information points out, AI apps like ChatGPT are displacing your run-of-the-mill search engines. So, Meta taking this action will presumably put them ahead of the curve.
