OpenAI has integrated real-time web search into ChatGPT, bridging a key gap with competitors like Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. This update, rolling out to paid subscribers and expanding to free users soon, allows ChatGPT to access and process current information, enhancing its responses. Called ‘ChatGPT search’, OpenAI said the latest version of its online chatbot can access and deliver information from across the internet in real-time, including news, stock prices and sports scores.
The significant upgrade to ChatGPT enables the AI chatbot to provide real-time information from across the web. The launch is expected to raise more questions about the startup’s link to Microsoft, a major OpenAI investor, which is also trying to expand the reach of its Bing search engine against Google.
Also, ‘ChatGPT search’ intensifies the ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s AI search race, with tech giants like Meta and Google also developing their own solutions.
How Does it Work
Rather than launching as a separate product, web search is seamlessly integrated into ChatGPT’s existing interface. The model, a fine-tuned version of GPT-4, is claimed to be able to handle complex queries, provide interactive results like stock graphs and maps, and even answer follow-up questions. This means that ChatGPT’s homepage can now also offer direct tabs to sourced material on topics ranging from weather forecasts and stock prices to sports scores and breaking news, as per the company.
“ChatGPT can now search the web in a much better way than before,” OpenAI said in a blog post. “You can get fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for.”
Chatbots such as ChatGPT, however, are prone to mistakes and sometimes make up information — a phenomenon that scientists call “hallucination.” This can happen even when chatbots access information from across the internet.
‘ChatGPT search’ availability
The new search functionality will be available across all ChatGPT platforms: iOS, Android, and desktop apps for macOS and Windows.