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Could Meta construct its own search engine, and if it did, what would that seem like?
Reports have emerged that Meta is looking to construct its own search tool for Meta AI, so as to reduce its reliance on Google and Microsoft’s Bing for web searches inside its artificial intelligence chatbot.
There are a couple of potential angles to the news, but it surely looks like Meta is looking to expand its data-gathering process so as to proceed to construct more powerful, real-time AI data tools. Which could end in a broader Meta search tool, powering real-time insights for its apps. This is something that would have particular value for Threads, in providing up-to-the-minute notes on evolving news stories to complement engagement within the app.
When Meta first announced its Meta AI chatbot in September last 12 months, it explained how it could be using web search results from Bing to help expand its responses:
“In text-based chats, Meta AI has access to real-time information through our search partnership with Bing and offers a tool for image generation.”
When Meta AI responses utilize Bing for information for context, Meta provides a web link to the search query.
Then in April this 12 months, Meta announced an extra partnership with Google to expand its web search responses even further, providing a similar web link on Google-powered replies.
And now, according The Information, Meta is looking to construct its own web crawler to power search queries independently, so as to reduce its reliance on its search partners for Meta AI.
As per The Information:
“As Meta Platforms tries to sustain with OpenAI in developing artificial intelligence, the Facebook owner is working on a search engine that crawls the net to provide conversational answers about current events to people using its Meta AI chatbot.”
Conceptually, this could give Meta an alternate, in case Microsoft or Google, each of whom are competing with Meta on generative AI development, decided to end their search deals.
But that will also mean that Meta would want to construct a complex search system, which crawls the net in a similar way to each Google and Bing. Which is a big undertaking, and why Meta went with these partnerships in the primary place.
But could Meta actually create a web crawler that functions in a similar way and would that be ok to provide adequate answers in Meta’s chatbot?
Meta already has various web crawlers that gather information from external web sites, and people crawlers have been ramping up activity in recent months, as Meta looks to gather more data for its AI projects. They could also already be gathering data for this latest search engine, but a dedicated Facebook search engine, again, can be a big project.
Though a dedicated search engine is a logical move within the broader information gathering sense that will also give Meta more data for its AI language models moving forward. Maybe, that’s actually the larger picture here, as opposed to simply powering in-stream search.
It’s more likely that Meta’s shoring up its data sources to power its AI tools and utilizing its existing crawlers to scrape whatever data it will probably from external providers who haven’t updated their robots.txt protections. That would help Meta construct upon its already vast data stores, and if it’s already gathering that info, it is sensible to also reduce its reliance on external search providers where it will probably.
So possibly it’s likely less about constructing a competitor to these providers and more about making best use of its own data gathering processes. But even so, it’s a significant undertaking, which could provide expanded opportunities for Zuck and Co., in the event that they can get it right.
Really, though, it’s not an unexpected move, given the competition within the space. Again, Meta is battling with these two providers for AI supremacy, and because the race continues to heat up, it’ll come as no surprise in the event that they stop helping Meta on this regard.
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