OpenAI’s ChatGPT has been a remarkable tool since its release in November 2022, offering powerful capabilities. However, it was limited in its knowledge, only accessing information up to September 2021. Fortunately, OpenAI has made a significant update to address this limitation.
OpenAI recently announced that ChatGPT now has the ability to browse the internet and provide users with current, authoritative information. This update is made possible through an integration with Microsoft’s Bing search engine. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Plus subscribers and ChatGPT Enterprise users can now access this feature by selecting it from the drop-down menu under the GPT-4 selector.
Returning to Web Browsing
Interestingly, this is not the first time ChatGPT has had web browsing capabilities. When OpenAI introduced third-party plugins for ChatGPT, they also included their own plugins, including a browsing feature that utilized the Microsoft Bing API and a text-based browser. However, this feature was disabled shortly after its release, as users discovered ways to bypass paywalls on news publisher websites.
Now, with the return of the browsing feature, OpenAI has implemented measures to prevent users from accessing paywalled content. The ChatGPT browsing feature can recognize the “robots.txt” code, which website owners can use to exclude search engines from indexing their content. This ensures that the browsing capability is limited to public, non-paywalled sites.
OpenAI’s leadership, including CEO Sam Altman and CTO Mira Murati, celebrated the return of web browsing capabilities on their personal accounts, expressing their excitement about this progress.
Comparing Bing Chat and ChatGPT Browsing
Microsoft’s Bing Chat, powered by a more advanced OpenAI language model, offers web browsing capabilities similar to ChatGPT. However, there are differences in terms of user experience. With ChatGPT, users can conveniently utilize browsing without leaving the ChatGPT interface. This means users can enjoy browsing along with the many other features offered by ChatGPT.
Additionally, OpenAI has recently introduced other exciting updates to ChatGPT. Users can now scan and analyze images and even have audio conversations with ChatGPT. This includes analyzing uploaded audio and generating responses in a synthesized voice. OpenAI has also integrated its image generation model, DALL-E 3, with ChatGPT, leveraging its natural language processing and conversational skills.
