ChatGPT needs no introduction at this point. It crossed the one million user mark in record time, and beyond some technical issues, not a few minds imagine it as “the future” of information search on the Web. The folks at search engine You.com seem to have recognized the potential of artificial intelligence assistants, and last week they announced YouChat, which works in parallel to their traditional engine.

YouChat: You.com Adds an AI Assistant to Its Search Engine
YouChat

A couple of months ago we talked about Andi, a new web search engine backed by artificial intelligence that gives answers instead of links. We also explored the potential of ChatGPT for Google, a Chrome-compatible extension that adds the assistant's responses to results. The fusion between AI assistants and search engines seems inevitable, and despite certain difficulties such as cost (it is estimated that ChatGPT “burns” three million dollars per month), some platforms are already heading in that direction. One of them is You.com, which last week presented its new assistant YouChat.

YouChat: AI Assistant for Your You.com Searches

YouChat: You.com Adds an AI Assistant to Its Search Engine
This is what a normal YouChat session looks like when it works properly

By implementing a system similar to ChatGPT, YouChat can answer questions about recent events (something blocked in ChatGPT because it cannot browse) and very specific questions (for example, which city is the most populous among two or three options), solve logical problems, provide solutions to mathematical equations, summarize information, present gift ideas or annual goals, translate languages, write short stories, and more.

YouChat: You.com Adds an AI Assistant to Its Search Engine
Unfortunately, our tests were a failure. Even with multiple browsers and two different connections, we only found errors.

Now, this is the point where I should share my experience with YouChat… but I never managed to get it to work during my session. After asking a dozen questions, all YouChat responded was “? Oops, I’m still learning and I couldn’t generate an answer right now. Please try again.” The product is clearly in beta and has a lot of work ahead, however, the most striking thing is that You.com “is not responsible for the generated content”. Its official presentation does not talk about filters or forbidden words, but I imagine You.com will have to make adjustments in the future.

Anyway, my negative case does not affect the overall view of YouChat and other similar assistants. Something must change in traditional searches, users expect more direct and clean results, without spam or distractions. YouChat is one of the first… and it will not be the last.

Official announcement: Click here