The search function enables users to obtain up-to-date data on various topics, including weather, stocks, and sports. Credit: Iryna Imago/Shutterstock.

OpenAI has introduced web search integration to its generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot ChatGPT.  

The launch of ChatGPT search is said to position the AI firm as a direct competitor to search giants such as Google and Microsoft’s Bing.  

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With the upgrade, ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers will be able to access information directly through the chat interface, expanding the bot’s capabilities beyond its previous historical data constraints. 

The search function enables users to obtain up-to-date data on various topics, including weather, stocks, and sports.  

OpenAI has implemented this feature by collaborating with a consortium of news and data providers, such as Associated Press and Financial Times. 

Announcing the feature, OpenAI said: “ChatGPT search connects people with original, high-quality content from the web and makes it part of their conversation. By integrating search with a chat interface, users can engage with information in a new way, while content owners gain new opportunities to reach a broader audience.  

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“We hope to help users discover publishers and websites, while bringing more choice to search.” 

The technology for this feature is an advanced iteration of OpenAI’s language models, described as “a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, post-trained using novel synthetic data generation techniques”.  

This system includes elements from OpenAI’s proprietary o1-preview system. 

The deployment of this new feature will be phased, with immediate access granted to ChatGPT Plus and Team users.  

Enterprise and education users are expected to follow in the subsequent weeks, while access for free users will be rolled out over the coming months. 

Looking ahead, OpenAI plans to broaden the search function’s scope, targeting areas such as shopping and travel, and to enhance the AI’s deep research abilities using the OpenAI o1 series.  

The company also aims to extend this new search experience to other platforms, including Advanced Voice and Canvas, and eventually to free and logged-out users. 

In October 2024, OpenAI raised $6.6bn from investors such as Microsoft, SoftBank, and NVIDIA at a valuation of more than $150bn.