OpenAI has a Halloween announcement: ChatGPT search is now official. The company is finally rolling out an official AI search engine competitor like Perplexitythat of Google AI Insightsand Microsoft Bing (powered by Copilot).

OpenAI initially announced its research plans in July, with a service called SearchGPT. While SearchGPT was a prototype and launched with a waiting list to try it out, ChatGPT search appears to have taken its place, with OpenAI integrating the main features of SearchGPT into its new search functionality.

How ChatGPT Search Works

On the surface, ChatGPT search is a traditional search engine. To use it, you click the globe icon when you launch ChatGPT (or press the / key and click Research in the pop-up), then enter your query. Let’s say you ask, “What’s the weather like this weekend in New York?” » Press Enter, ChatGPT “thinks” for a moment, then spits out an answer to your question.

For this weather example, the ChatGPT search actually has dynamic graphics to accompany its response. OpenAI claims to have partnered with different information and data providers for visual designs and updated information like this. This includes weather, but also queries about stocks, sports, news and maps.

Credit: Jake Peterson

Whatever you search for on the web, ChatGPT will cite its sources, like other AI-powered search engines. If you ask, for example: “What did Apple announce this week?” the bot summarizes the news by talking about new MacBook Pro models, a redesigned Mac mini, an updated iMac, the release of Apple Intelligence, and new upgrades to Apple accessories. For all of these summaries, you can see the source they came from and click through to read the full article for yourself. You can also hover your cursor over these sources if you want to see a preview without opening the entire site.

Additionally, at the bottom of the answer there is a general “Sources” option: click on it and you will be able to see a full list of sources referenced for this summary, as well as a longer list of search results for similar sources at your request. whether ChatGPT used them or not.

OpenAI says ChatGPT search is powered by a “refined” version of its Model GPT-4oand distills the results of The OpenAI o1-preview model. The company has also established partnerships with numerous industry news organizations, including renowned companies such as Condé Nast, the Financial Times, Le Monde, The Atlantic and Vox Media. To convince (and to anticipate criticism, no doubt), the company included a number of quotes about the quality of its new search engine, from the executives of these media companies.

The company admits that there is currently room for improvement: while it has brought the “best” of SearchGPT’s tested features to ChatGPT search, shopping and travel search queries still need improvement. some time to be prepared. Search is not yet available with Advanced voice And clothbut it happens.

Search and Privacy ChatGPT

According to OpenAIWhen you search for something with ChatGPT’s new web search feature, ChatGPT can share “unlinked search queries” with other search providers, like Bing. The bot also retrieves your location information from your IP address and may share it with these search providers to improve the accuracy of search results.

Who can use ChatGPT search?

Like most new ChatGPT features, search is currently not available to free and offline users. To try it today, you must either be a ChatGPT Plus or a ChatGPT team user, or you must have been part of the SearchGPT waitlist.

The feature works on both desktop and mobile, but you can only preview sources without clicking through the desktop web app.

How to set ChatGPT search as your default search engine

If you’re tired of Google, Bing, or even Perplexity, and want to use ChatGPT as your default search engine in the future, you actually can. You will need to use Chrome and download ChatGPT search extension.

Now when you type a query in your address bar, Chrome will open ChatGPT. However, you will need to be logged into your eligible account. Otherwise, you will just get a result from the standard ChatGPT service, not a search.

Is ChatGPT search accurate?

I reference Google’s AI previews a lot, not because it’s a reliable use of AI, but because its deployment has been so disastrous. While SearchGPT hasn’t made headlines due to its inaccuracy, it’s important to remember that generative AI is far from perfect. In fact, every ChatGPT result, including search, ends with “ChatGPT may make errors.” Check important information. »

This is because AI can sometimes hallucinateor, quite simply, invent things that are not true. What certainly makes fact-checking easier are linked sources. If you want to verify that a result is correct, click on the source to see if that site both reflects what ChatGPT says and is trustworthy in general. If ChatGPT says something and cites AP News, and AP says it’s true, that’s pretty solid. If ChatGPT says something, and cites trustmebro.fr, be skeptical.

Time will tell whether ChatGPT search is more or less accurate than its competitors. Until then, if you use ChatGPT search or any of these AI-powered search engines, just be sure to check their results.