AI developers’ chatbots can now search and summarize SAN FRANCISCO —AI giant OpenAI has announced a major overhaul of ChatGPT, enabling the chatbot to search the web and provide answers based on what it finds.
The upgrade changes the experience of using the popular chatbot. It puts OpenAI in more direct competition with Google, offering an alternative way to find and use information online.
What it looks like: Some ChatGPT queries will now be answered with the help of web search results. AI-generated text includes links to sources in a gray box at the end of the sentence and in a list of citations at the bottom or right.
How it works: Search results are shown only when ChatGPT’s algorithm determines they’re relevant, or when you click the globe icon in the prompt box.
You can reply to ChatGPT search results to refine your query.
What’s missing: Product shopping links and ads (at least for now).
Who will get it: Initially only available to paid ChatGPT Plus and Team users, but OpenAI says it plans to open it to free users eventually.
Starting Thursday, paid subscribers to ChatGPT will be able to activate a mode that lets the AI tool respond to queries by searching the web for the latest information and summarizing what it finds, rather than providing answers based on potentially outdated data used to create the chatbot.
The search feature is powered by Microsoft’s Bing search engine, an OpenAI backer. It also draws on articles from publishers that have signed deals with the AI developer, such as Wall Street Journal owner News Corp. Google added AI-generated summaries and quotes to its traditional search results this year in response to growing competition from chatbots. Startup Perplexity offers a similar AI-enhanced search engine and has received more than $400 million in funding, according to venture capital research firm Pitchbook.
The changes will make ChatGPT more useful and accurate, OpenAI head of media partnerships Varun Shetty said in an interview. “We think because it’s online, it will increase reliability and reduce illusions.”
In addition to helping users find useful information, chatbots and AI search engines are beginning to fundamentally change the online economy. For more than a decade, Google has been the web’s main gateway, making news outlets, bloggers and other publishers dependent on people clicking on search results to sell advertising or subscription traffic. AI-powered search tools offered by Google, OpenAI and others can summarize web pages and answer questions directly, helping people find information without clicking on other sites. That has raised growing concerns among publishers who fear they are being left behind by tech companies. Some publishers have accused AI developers of unfairly copying and plagiarizing their content to build AI tools that upend their industries. Some news organizations have sued OpenAI, alleging copyright infringement.
ChatGPT’s search overhaul will be a test of how AI search engines can impact publishing.
Queries that trigger the web search feature will deliver AI-generated paragraphs of text followed by links to websites that summarize the content.
ChatGPT’s paying users will use the new search feature during and in the days following the Nov. 5 presidential election, a period when disinformation researchers say the web will be rife with lies and political falsehoods. The AI’s search tool will direct queries related to the election results to sources such as the Associated Press and Reuters. “We are trying to prioritize and promote the highest quality and authoritative sources we can,” Shetty said.