Meta is working on an independent AI search engine

Meta is reportedly exploring the creation of an independent search engine to support its Meta AI chatbot, reducing its reliance on current partnerships with Microsoft’s Bing and Google. According to reports, this move aligns with Meta’s broader AI ambitions and its desire to bolster proprietary data sources.

The potential shift follows the company’s earlier announcements surrounding the Meta AI chatbot. Launched last September, Meta AI initially relied on Bing to access real-time information, integrating these results into conversational responses for users. This setup allowed the chatbot to provide search-linked answers, complemented by a tool for image generation. In April this year, the company expanded this capability through a similar partnership with Google, further enriching its chatbot’s search-powered responses.

However, the report suggests that the company is now looking to develop a dedicated web crawler for gathering data, a system comparable to those used by Google and Bing. Such a move would provide the company with an alternative search engine infrastructure should its partnerships with Microsoft or Google end, an arrangement that has come under question as these companies compete in the generative AI space.

While building a comprehensive search system would present a significant challenge, the company already operates several web crawlers that collect data from external websites, activity that has reportedly increased in recent months. These existing crawlers may serve as a foundation for a new search engine, enabling the company to acquire additional data for its language models and AI initiatives.

For Meta, an independent search engine represents a strategic opportunity, both to reinforce its AI chatbot’s search capabilities and to gather more diverse data for developing its language models. Whether Meta will fully develop a standalone search engine remains to be seen, yet its ongoing data collection efforts suggest a stronger focus on internalising its information sources.