OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has introduced ChatGPT Search, a new feature that integrates real-time web search capabilities with its conversational AI platform.
The new feature, now available to ChatGPT Plus and Team users, allows ChatGPT to search the web for relevant information to enhance responses with current data from trusted sources.
As OpenAI highlighted in a statement, “ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what you ask, or you can manually choose to search by clicking the web search icon.” This ensures “fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for.”
“Now, chat can get you to a better answer: Ask a question in a more natural, conversational way, and ChatGPT can choose to respond with information from the web. Go deeper with follow-up questions, and ChatGPT will consider the full context of your chat to get a better answer for you,” OpenAI said.
ChatGPT Search: What are the key features?
- Conversational Search: Users can ask questions in a natural language format, similar to how they would talk to a friend.
- Contextual Understanding: ChatGPT Search considers the entire conversation history to provide more accurate and relevant answers.
- Source Attribution: Responses include links to original source materials, such as news articles and blog posts.
- Up-to-date Information: ChatGPT Search integrates with news and data providers to offer the latest information on weather, sports, stocks, and news.
Collaboration with the News Industry
Back in July, OpenAI introduced its SearchGPT prototype to a small group of users and publishers to get feedback. The company announced plans then to integrate the best of the SearchGPT prototype features directly into ChatGPT.
OpenAI also said it is collaborating with the news industry, so as to get information from trustworthy sources. Partners include major news organisations like Associated Press, Reuters, The Atlantic, and Vox Media.
“ChatGPT search promises to better highlight and attribute information from trustworthy news sources, benefiting audiences while expanding the reach of publishers like ourselves who produce premium journalism,” Pam Wasserstein, President of Vox Media said.
This move by OpenAI positions it as a distinct alternative to traditional search engines like Google. However ChapGPT will still face intense competitions from other AI models such as Google’s Gemini, which integrates data from Google’s extensive search engine, to Microsoft’s Bing AI which offers a similar conversational experience.
OpenAI said it plans to continuously improve ChatGPT Search, particularly in areas like shopping and travel. The company also aims to leverage the reasoning capabilities of its latest advancements, the OpenAI o1 series, to facilitate deeper research within the chat interface.
ChatGPT Search is currently available to ChatGPT Plus and Team users. OpenAI plans to roll out the feature to all free users over the coming months.
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