The search startup trying to turn the web into a database

MIT Technology Review December 3, 2024
Will Douglas Heaven

Search firm Exa wants to use the tech behind large language models to tame the wildness of the web.

A startup called Exa is pitching a new spin on generative search. It uses the tech behind large language models to return lists of results that it claims are more on point than those from its rivals, including Google and OpenAI. The aim is to turn the internet’s chaotic tangle of web pages into a kind of directory, with results that are specific and precise.

Exa already provides its search engine as a back-end service to companies that want to build their own applications on top of it. Today it is launching the first consumer version of that search engine, called...

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