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ChatGPT Plus and Team users will have access to the function from today, while free users will gain access in the coming months.
ChatGPT subscribers will now be able to avail of its AI-powered web search engine.
OpenAI is enabling a set of new search functions to its popular large language model, which will be available for paid users along with SearchGPT waitlist users.
Free, Enterprise and Education users will gain access to the search features in the coming weeks.
The company said ChatGPT will choose to search the web based on what users ask but they can also choose to manually search by clicking the web search icon.
Chats will now also include links to sources, such as news articles and blogposts. When users click the ‘Sources’ button below the response, a sidebar will open with the references.
According to OpenAI, the search 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 partners.
OpenAI has opted to bring its search tool directly into its chat function rather than create a separate product. “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,” the company wrote in a blogpost.
“We hope to help users discover publishers and websites, while bringing more choice to search.”
The company has partnered with several content publishers including The Atlantic, Vox Media and News Corp. However, it has also been in hot water earlier this year over a copyright lawsuit with The New York Times.
Despite this, the company has been growing in strength, reaching a value of $157bn at the beginning of October following a major funding round. The AI start-up also secured $4bn in revolving credit from nine major banks.
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