OpenAI just upgraded ChatGPT with a search engine to rival Google

OpenAI's flagship product ChatGPT's advanced natural language processing (NLP) allows you to understand your prompt no matter how you word it, making it easy to learn more about a topic. However, its knowledge cutoff, the date of which varies based on the model you're using, has made it problematic to use as a search engine -- until today. 

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On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT search, which lets users search the web directly within ChatGPT for timely, up-to-date information complete with citations linked to their sources. The search feature will automatically activate when needed based on your prompt, but it can also be manually activated by clicking the search button. 

In addition to using web sources, ChatGPT will consider the context of your chat when providing answers to ensure your response is tailored to exactly what you're looking for -- an advantage over traditional web search engines. 

All the chat responses include in-line links to sources information has been pulled from. If you click the Sources button, the references will appear in a sidebar that mimics a search engine results page. 

The search model takes a combination of OpenAI's latest technologies to generate its responses. "The search model is a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, post-trained using novel synthetic data generation techniques, including distilling outputs from OpenAI o1-preview," said OpenAI. 

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OpenAI also shared that it partnered with news and data providers to present users with up-to-date information and visual designs for different interests, such as weather. The photo below shows widgets for the weather enabled through a partnership with Accuweather. 

The Search experience is available starting today on the ChatGPT website, desktop, and mobile app for all ChatGPT Plus and Team users, as well as SearchGPT waitlist users. 

OpenAI shares that Enterprise and Edu users will receive access in the upcoming weeks, and free users will receive access in the coming months. As a ChatGPT Plus user, I already had access when I opened the desktop application and was notified.

SearchGPT was initially launched in July as a prototype, from which OpenAI planned to integrate the best features with ChatGPT later. OpenAI has collected that feedback and implemented it into its search experience, claiming it brought "the best of the SearchGPT experience" into the chatbot. 

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The company also shares that it plans to keep improving the search experience, including refining shopping and travel, implementing OpenA o1-series advanced reasoning capabilities for deeper research, and bringing it to Advanced Voice and canvas.