ChatGPT can now search the internet, OpenAI says

OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT, announced Wednesday that the artificial intelligence program can now search the internet on its own.

“ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources,” OpenAI wrote in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “It is no longer limited to data before September 2021.”

“Since the original launch of browsing in May, we received useful feedback,” the company wrote in a X thread, saying it had made updates that allowed the program to search on the web and provide useful information.

Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, seemed to revel in the new feature in his own post on X.

“[W]e are so back,” Altman said in his post. 

The new ChatGPT feature comes after OpenAI announced the program’s new capability to have a conversation with a user or show it “what you’re talking about” earlier this week. It said via voice and image capabilities, a “more intuitive” interface will allow for more ways to use ChatGPT.

“Snap a picture of a landmark while traveling and have a live conversation about what’s interesting about it,” the company said in a blog post. 

“When you’re home, snap pictures of your fridge and pantry to figure out what’s for dinner (and ask follow up questions for a step by step recipe),” the blog post continued. “After dinner, help your child with a math problem by taking a photo, circling the problem set, and having it share hints with both of you.”

The ability to have voice conversations with the program will be launched to Plus and Enterprise users next week. Peter Deng, the vice president of consumer products at OpenAI, said the voice chat is important to attracting more users to the platform.

“One of the hardest jobs is taking that amazing technology and translating it into the simplicity that the next 300-400 million people are looking for,” Deng told The Washington Post.