OpenAI has launched its AI-powered search engine for paid subscribers. However, the AI powerhouse has plans to expand the same for free, education, and enterprise users in the next few weeks. OpenAI has enabled real-time information in conversations for subscribers along with waitlist users of SearchGPT.
Instead of introducing a different application, OpenAI has integrated the new search into ChatGPT’s current interface. “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,” the company said in its official blog.
The new feature accesses web results-based queries during conversations. However, users can also manually start web searches. With this, ChatGPT is now on par with the likes of Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, who have been offering real-time internet access for a while.
When it comes to availability, Search will be available on chatgpt.com and the desktop and mobile apps on iOS, Android, macOS, and Windows. ChatGPT Plus and Team users, and SearchGPT waitlist users will get access starting today.
Reportedly, the search functionality has been built using a mix of search technologies. OpenAI said in its blog that the underlying search model is a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o. Initially, about 10,000 test users were given access to SearchGPT in July.
The latest development from OpenAI comes at a time when search is seen as the latest frontier in AI, with many tech giants aiming to outdo each other. Earlier this week, it was known that Meta was planning to introduce its AI-powered search engine that can be accessed on WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook.
OpenAI, in its blog, has said that the new feature has been designed to get useful answers on the web, which can take a lot of effort. “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,” read the blog. Users can go deeper with follow-up questions as ChatGPT will consider the full context of their chat to get a better answer. Besides, chats will also include links to sources such as news articles and blog posts. One simply needs to click on the Sources button below the response to open a sidebar with the references.
It needs to be noted that before this update, ChatGPT’s knowledge limit was between 2021 and 2023 based on the model. However, now the company has claimed that with the live search active, it will continue to refresh its training data.
