ChatGPT Search, an artificial intelligence (AI) search engine for chatbots built on OpenAI, was introduced on Thursday. The feature arrives after months of speculation about the AI ​​company’s SearchGPT queue. The web search feature allows users to perform a web search on a topic and get results in natural language based on information sourced from different websites. This new capability is integrated into the ChatGPT interface and can be triggered both manually and automatically. ChatGPT search is currently rolling out to paid subscribers of the AI-powered chatbot.
ChatGPT research provided by OpenAI
In a Blog postOpenAI has detailed ChatGPT’s new web search capability. Previous reports had highlighted that the AI ​​company was building its own search engine to reduce reliance on third-party search engines. This feature also fills an important gap compared to AI-powered chatbots like Gemini and Copilot, which can perform web searches based on user prompts.
It’s worth noting that the GPT-4o AI model has the ability to search the web in real time, but there were two caveats. The responses were integrated into the conversation, so users couldn’t distinguish whether the information came from the AI ​​model’s datasets or from the Internet. Second, users had no direct way to start searching the web.
ChatGPT search feature
The new ChatGPT search feature solves both problems. Users will now see a globe icon next to the Attach File icon in the text field. Clicking on the globe icon will launch the manual web search mode, and the chatbot will only use the information found on the web to respond to the user’s responses. OpenAI said the AI ​​tool will also automatically activate search mode where relevant to the query. With the introduction of ChatGPT research, OpenAI is also competing with Perplexity AI as well as Google AI Overviews.
Gadgets 360 employees were able to test the feature, and it’s very fast and responsive. Despite searching multiple websites for the query, it only took a couple of seconds before the output generation process began. Furthermore, there is an emphasis on citations where each source is mentioned twice – once after the end of the sentence in which the information was used, and once at the bottom of the response.
The latter is a detailed quote with the website and article title displayed, while the former is a slide quote where only the website name is displayed but users can click on it to go to the source URL.
Currently, ChatGPT Plus and Teams users, as well as those who have signed up to the SearchGPT waitlist, will get the web search feature. Enterprise and Edu users will get access to the feature in the next few weeks, and free tier users will get the feature over the coming months.
