American artificial intelligence company OpenAI on Thursday announced the prototype of its search engine, named SearchGPT.

The engine has AI search features that provide users fast and timely answers with clear and relevant sources, it said in a statement.

The new search features are designed to combine the strength of the company's AI models with information from the internet, it added.

"Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results," it said. "We believe that by enhancing the conversational capabilities of our models with real-time information from the web, finding what you’re looking for can be faster and easier."

While the prototype is temporary, the firm said it plans to integrate the best of its features directly into ChatGPT in the future.

The company said if users are interested in trying the prototype, they have to sign up for a waitlist, adding SearchGPT is currently offered to a small group of users and publishers to get feedback.

"SearchGPT will quickly and directly respond to your questions with up-to-date information from the web while giving you clear links to relevant sources," said the statement.

Users will be able to ask follow-up questions, like they would in a conversation with a person, with the shared context building with each query, according to the company.