OpenAI on Monday announced the rollout of its search engine-based feature to all registered users. This feature, called ChatGPT Search, enables users to find answers to their questions by providing relevant information available on the web, sourced from websites and blogs. The feature was first announced in July when a prototype called SearchGPT was released to a small group of testers. Later, this feature was launched for paid customers of the chatbot in November. Now, the AI firm has extended the feature to users of the platform’s free tier as well.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT search now available without subscription
On the eighth day of the company’s 12-day feature shipping schedule, OpenAI expanded ChatGPT Search to all users of its AI chatbot. This web search functionality is available within the chatbot’s interface and can be triggered manually and automatically. The AI firm has reportedly created its own search engine to reduce dependency on third-party search engines and avoid issues related to web crawling.
Once users open ChatGPT, whether they’re on the web or the mobile app, they’ll see a new globe icon next to the ‘Attach file’ icon in the text field. Tapping the icon activates web search mode, and the AI sources data only from the web rather than from its pre-training and post-training knowledge base. While users can activate it manually, OpenAI explained that it will trigger automatically for relevant queries.
ChatGPT Search can visit multiple websites for a query and process information from all of them to present a response in natural language. This feature also shows the source of information in two ways. After each sentence, an icon highlights the particular source wherever the information was used. The list of sources is also mentioned below the response.
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Additionally, OpenAI also announced that it is adding maps to ChatGPT in mobile apps. With it, users can search and chat about local restaurants, businesses, and places of attractions. The AI firm claimed that the information displayed on the map would be kept up to date.
