Connecting ChatGPT to the Internet has become more direct with the ability to search the net faster and faster, providing links to web sources, OpenAI said in a blog post on Thursday.

People can use natural language to ask ChatGPT queries and get relevant information and up-to-date links. There is also now a manual search button in ChatGPT. Clicking the “sources” button on web or mobile brings up a list of citations on the right side of the site. Search is currently limited to users on the ChatGPT Plus, Team, and SearchGPT waitlists. Enterprise and EDU users will have access to it in the coming weeks. OpenAI says ChatGPT Search will be rolled out to users of the free version of its chatbot in the coming months.

OpenAI has partnered with several news organizations to license their reporting to help populate ChatGPT’s results. He also pointed out that previously users had to refer to an external search engine to get relevant links, which is no longer necessary.

“ChatGPT research promises to better highlight and attribute information from trusted news sources, benefiting the public while expanding the reach of publishers like us who produce quality journalism,” said Pam Wasserstein, president of Vox Media, in the blog.

Media contributors include Associated Press, Axel Springer, Condé Nast, Dotdash Meredith, Financial Times, GEDI, Hearst, Le Monde, News Corp, Prisa (El País), Reuters, The Atlantic, Time and Vox Media. It is up to other press publishers to decide whether they wish to have OpenAI robots explore their sites for information. Unsurprisingly, the New York Times is not on the list as it stands. sue OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.

OpenAI referred to its blog post when asked for additional comment.

When ChatGPT launched in late 2022, it immediately gained popularity and gave users an alternative to Google Search. The online search landscape has changed dramatically since then, with Google and Microsoft soon offering their own AI-powered search engines and chatbots. Google AI Insights, for example, sits at the top of Google Search and answers people’s questions with AI-designed answers. Other players, like Perplexityhave focused on AI-enhanced online search from the start. Increased competition has led to a decline in Google’s search market share worldwide, from 90% to 87%.

With the latest ChatGPT update, almost all major AI chatbots see the need for a strong internet connection.

OpenAI claims that ChatGPT allows people to interact with information more naturally and helps users discover publishers and websites.

“As AI reshapes the media landscape, Axel Springer’s partnership with OpenAI opens up enormous opportunities for innovative advancements,” said Mathias Sanchez, senior vice president of global strategic partnerships at Axel Springer SE, in the blog. “Together we are creating new business models that ensure journalism remains both trusted and profitable.”