OpenAI has updated its AI-powered chatbot, adding what CEO Sam Altman said Thursday is “my favorite feature we have launched” since ChatGPT’s debut. Beginning Thursday, ChatGPT’s paying subscribers can activate a mode in which the chatbot searches the web for the latest information when answering a query. That means it will no longer rely solely on the “potentially stale data used to create the chatbot,” reports the Washington Post. ChatGPT will search using Microsoft’s Bing search engine, then summarize the information it finds and present links to the sources, mimicking how Google’s search engine operates using AI-generated summaries.
The search feature, under testing since July, “offers up-to-the-minute sports scores, stock quotes, news, weather and more” and puts OpenAI in a position “to better compete with search engines like Google, Microsoft’s Bing and [the AI-enhanced startup] Perplexity, per CNBC. “I find it to be a way faster/easier way to get the information I’m looking for,” Altman said Thursday during an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit. “I think we’ll see this especially for queries that require more complex research.” Some 250 million people use ChatGPT every week, according to OpenAI.
The feature was released Thursday to all ChatGPT Plus and Team users. Enterprise and Edu users will gain access in the coming weeks, while those using ChatGPT’s free version should expect to see it over the coming months, per CNBC. OpenAI’s head of media partnerships, Varun Shetty, says the change “improves relevancy and decreases hallucinations, because of the ability to go out to the web.” Though publishers have raised concerns that AI-driven chatbots plagiarize their content and risk putting them out of business, Shetty says he expects users will “be curious” about the information presented and “want to click off and learn more.” (More ChatGPT stories.)