OpenAI takes on Google as Spotify says HiFi still isn’t ready

It’s the final weekend of July, meaning it’s time for us to pick our winner and loser for this week. 

This week saw some big updates in streaming with Amazon overhauling its Prime Video UI and Disney+, Hulu and Max teaming up in the US to offer the ultimate streaming bundle. 

Meanwhile, Sonos apologised for its disastrous May app update, Apple brought Apple Maps to the web and the HMD Skyline beat the Pixel 9 to MagSafe-style Qi2 charging. 

Keep reading to discover who we named our winner and loser this week. 

Winner: OpenAI

This week’s winner is OpenAI as the company announced a new prototype search engine, SearchGPT. 

SearchGPT is a temporary prototype designed to test new search features. It leverages OpenAI’s advanced AI models combined with information collected from the web with the goal being to offer fast results with clear and relevant sources. 

“Getting answers on the web can take a lot of effort, often requiring multiple attempts to get relevant results”, said OpenAI in its press release, possibly taking a shot at current search leader Google whose AI Overviews feature has been spotted offering some slightly unorthodox advice since its launch. 

“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”. 

Not only will SearchGPT provide answers with links to sources, but the search engine will also aim to answer follow-up questions in a conversational style similar to how you might interact with ChatGPT. 

While SearchGPT is currently just a temporary prototype, OpenAI has revealed plans to integrate its most successful features into ChatGPT in the future. 

Loser: Spotify

Our loser this week is Spotify after it became apparent that Spotify HiFi won’t be launching anytime soon. 

It’s been three and a half years since Spotify first announced plans to launch a lossless audio tier in February 2021. In that time, Spotify has leaned into podcasts and audiobooks, increased its subscription prices several times and discontinued Car Thing. 

However, there’s been no sign of Spotify HiFi aside from the occasional reassurance from Spotify that the lossless audio tier is still on its way. 

We received another of those updates this week, though this one was slightly more clear about the fact HiFi is still a while off from being complete. 

CEO Daniel Ek jumped on an earnings call on Tuesday and revealed the following (via 9to5Mac): 

“The plan here is to offer much a much better version of Spotify. Think something like $5 above the current premium tier. So it’s probably around a $17 or $18 price point, but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all of the benefits that the normal Spotify version has, but a lot more control, a lot higher quality across the board, and some other things that I’m not ready to talk about just yet”. 

Not only did Ek reveal that Spotify HiFi will cost $17-$18 a month – something Apple offers on its £/$10.99 Apple Music plan at no extra cost – but the CEO also stated that the HiFi project is still in its “early days”.

If you’re holding out for lossless audio on Spotify, it might be time to cut your losses and head to Apple Music, Amazon Music Unlimited or Deezer for your HiFi fix.