OpenAI has brought a new web search tool to ChatGPT
The news: ChatGPT can now search the web for up-to-date answers to a user’s queries. Previously it was restricted to generating answers from its training data, and had limited web search capabilities. But now, ChatGPT will automatically search the web in response to queries about recent information such as sports, stocks, or news of the day, and can deliver rich multi-media results.
How to use it: The feature is available now for the chatbot’s paying users, but OpenAI intends to make it available for free later, even when people are logged out. It also plans to combine search with its voice features.
The context: OpenAI is the latest tech company to debut an AI-powered search assistant, challenging similar tools from competitors such as Google, Microsoft, and startup Perplexity. However, none of these tools are immune from the persistent tendency of AI language models to make things up or get them wrong. Read the full story.
—Melissa Heikkilä and Mat Honan
AI search could break the web
—Benjamin Brooks is a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard scrutinizing the regulatory and legislative response to AI.
At its best, AI search can better infer a user’s intent, amplify quality content, and synthesize information from diverse sources. But if AI search becomes our primary portal to the web, it threatens to disrupt an already precarious digital economy.
Today, the production of content online depends on a fragile set of incentives tied to virtual foot traffic: ads, subscriptions, donations, sales, or brand exposure. By shielding the web behind an all-knowing chatbot, AI search could deprive creators of the visits and “eyeballs” they need to survive. Here’s what the industry should do to make AI search sustainable.