ChatGPT users who previously signed up for the waitlist for the search service can now search the web.
The company said in a post on Thursday the move brings search through SearchGPT directly into ChatGPT.
Those with paid subscriptions -- along with anyone on the waitlist -- can now click the web search icon on chatgpt.com t o access search. Enterprise and education users will gain access in the coming weeks.
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Search results provides "timely" results with links to sources. OpenAI said the "model is a fine-tuned version of GPT-4o, post-trained using novel synthetic data generation techniques, including distilling outputs from OpenAI o1-preview. ChatGPT search leverages third-party search providers, as well as content provided directly by our partners.”
Ask the search engine to provide information on traveling to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and it returns photos and a long list in a text format for information about restaurants, hotels, and places to ski. The list shows the importance of ensuring companies and brands fine-tune their SEO strategies.
When someone does a search, the technology determines when to access web results based on queries, although users can also manually trigger web searches.
The engine now has the opportunity to compete Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini, which have long offered real-time internet access in their AI conversations.
Despite Microsoft's efforts to first combine AI with search, Rollison said, Google has driven the most attention in that area with the launch of AI Overviews, and recent moves from Meta and Apple are making it clear that generative AI is now a table stake for big tech.
