{"id":358437,"date":"2025-08-25T22:33:04","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/27f4f8ad-fe3f-4072-8c0e-6e9d55c89dfa"},"modified":"2025-08-25T22:33:04","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T17:33:04","slug":"chatgpt-is-reportedly-scraping-google-search-data-to-answer-your-questions-heres-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/chatgpt-is-reportedly-scraping-google-search-data-to-answer-your-questions-heres-how\/","title":{"rendered":"ChatGPT is reportedly scraping Google Search data to answer your questions &#8211; here&#8217;s how"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"c-shortcodeImage u-clearfix c-shortcodeImage-large\">\n<div class=\"c-shortcodeImage_imageContainer\">\n<div class=\"c-shortcodeImage_image\"><picture class=\"c-cmsImage c-cmsImage_loaded\"><source media=\"(max-width: 767px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/7dbbb408dca92b516663ac76bef961d5b79053f5\/2025\/08\/25\/db8f43c6-2779-4fd1-a989-38db41bed4b2\/gettyimages-2229146616.jpg?auto=webp&amp;width=768\" alt=\"gettyimages-2229146616\"><source media=\"(max-width: 1023px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/2c48e584a16ec9e9ee2800ae6435074e70246321\/2025\/08\/25\/db8f43c6-2779-4fd1-a989-38db41bed4b2\/gettyimages-2229146616.jpg?auto=webp&amp;width=1024\" alt=\"gettyimages-2229146616\"><source media=\"(max-width: 1440px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/4eb239784b93b19159d9e7283ae7ad7f2bf94132\/2025\/08\/25\/db8f43c6-2779-4fd1-a989-38db41bed4b2\/gettyimages-2229146616.jpg?auto=webp&amp;width=1280\" alt=\"gettyimages-2229146616\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/a\/img\/resize\/4eb239784b93b19159d9e7283ae7ad7f2bf94132\/2025\/08\/25\/db8f43c6-2779-4fd1-a989-38db41bed4b2\/gettyimages-2229146616.jpg?auto=webp&amp;width=1280\" alt=\"gettyimages-2229146616\" width=\"1280\" height=\"853.4330451039962\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><\/picture><\/div>\n<p> <!----><\/div><figcaption> <span class=\"c-shortcodeImage_credit g-outer-spacing-top-xsmall u-block\">Anadolu \/ Contributor \/ Anadolu via Getty<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Follow ZDNET:&nbsp;<\/em><span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cc.zdnet.com\/v1\/otc\/00hQi47eqnEWQ6T9d4QLBUc?element=BODY&amp;element_label=Add+us+as+a+preferred+Google+source&amp;module=LINK&amp;object_type=text-link&amp;object_uuid=5e5d2e64-4b30-43e6-8555-26eac7e449f3&amp;position=1&amp;template=article&amp;track_code=__COM_CLICK_ID__&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fpreferences%2Fsource%3Fq%3Dzdnet.com&amp;view_instance_uuid=379e95d2-6b56-476b-a90b-043a8dd63bd3\" rel=\"noopener nofollow sponsored\" target=\"_blank\"><span>Add us as a preferred source<\/span><!----><\/a><\/span><em>&nbsp;on Google.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr>\n<h3>ZDNET&#8217;s key takeaways<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Reports reveal that OpenAI uses Google Search data to answer some of users&#8217; questions.<\/li>\n<li>The topics that use Google Search data mostly surround news, sports, and financial markets.<\/li>\n<li>OpenAI retrieves the Google Search data using a third-party web-scraping tool.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr>\n<p>As more people consult ChatGPT for general inquiries, reports are pointing to OpenAI, the AI-powered chatbot&#8217;s parent company, leveraging Google Search&#8217;s index to provide users with answers.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI is using Google Search data to help ChatGPT answer questions, particularly about news, sports, and financial markets, according to&nbsp;<span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theinformation.com\/articles\/openai-challenging-google-using-search-data?im_ref=1lf2YXU36xycR7x0FkyhFTOhUkpzWR2EE3WYXQ0&amp;sharedid=tomsguide.com&amp;irpid=10078&amp;irgwc=1&amp;utm_source=affiliate\" rel=\"noopener nofollow sponsored\" target=\"_blank\"><span>The Information<\/span><!----><\/a><\/span>. The article said that these current event topics are where OpenAI&#8217;s proprietary tools struggle to give accurate responses.<\/p>\n<p>(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET&#8217;s parent company, filed an April 2025 lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/i-retested-gpt-5s-coding-skills-using-openais-guidance-and-now-i-trust-it-even-less\/\">I retested GPT-5&#8217;s coding skills using OpenAI&#8217;s guidance &#8211; and now I trust it even less<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Google Search may be one of ChatGPT&#8217;s biggest rivals. The chatbot has accelerated Search&#8217;s foray into AI-powered search summaries, subsequently lowering traffic from websites that appear in Google&#8217;s search results.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Information also reported that OpenAI retrieves Search data from SerpApi, a web-scraping firm. According to <span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/serpapi.com\/use-cases\" rel=\"noopener nofollow sponsored\" target=\"_blank\"><span>SerpApi<\/span><!----><\/a><\/span>&#8216;s website, the company offers data extraction services to AI models, saying that search results data best builds large datasets for machine learning models.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/worried-about-ais-soaring-energy-needs-avoiding-chatbots-wont-help-but-3-things-could\/\">Worried about AI&#8217;s soaring energy needs? Avoiding chatbots won&#8217;t help &#8211; but 3 things could<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Abishek Iyer, a former Google engineer, conducted an experiment to prove ChatGPT uses Google Search indexes to generate information. In his experiment, <span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/distantgradient\/status\/1946677234229534921?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1946677234229534921%7Ctwgr%5E5d10b7a8bd7c9b2e977bb8bcd339a9ece47965e3%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.seroundtable.com%2Fchatgpt-using-google-search-39825.html\" rel=\"noopener nofollow sponsored\" target=\"_blank\"><span>posted to X<\/span><!----><\/a><\/span>, Iyer created a fake word, included it on a hidden page, and indexed it in Google&#8217;s search engine, ensuring the term was excluded from other engines like Bing. Once the term was indexed in Google, ChatGPT could define it using Iyer&#8217;s exact words found on his hidden page.<\/p>\n<p>OpenAI and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, OpenAI asserted that its search capabilities were powered by an in-house web crawler, and with data from publishers the company has licensing agreements with. Google was not a partnered company, denying OpenAI access to its search index to supply ChatGPT with search results.<\/p>\n<p><em>Want to follow my work?&nbsp;<span class=\"c-commerceLink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=zdnet.com#link={%22role%22:%22standard%22,%22href%22:%22https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=zdnet.com%22,%22target%22:%22_blank%22,%22absolute%22:%22%22,%22linkText%22:%22Add%20ZDNET%20as%20a%20trusted%20source%20on%20Google%22}\" rel=\"noopener nofollow sponsored\" target=\"_blank\"><span>Add ZDNET as a trusted source on Google<\/span><!----><\/a><\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.zdnet.com\/article\/chatgpt-is-reportedly-scraping-google-search-data-to-answer-your-questions-heres-how\/\">Source Link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OpenAI&#8217;s in-house tools have real-time answering blind spots. The company&#8217;s solution could be to patch it with Google&#8217;s search index.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14083],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-358437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-technology-industry-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358437\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.technologyforyou.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}