In a surprising move, OpenAI announced that its AI assistant, ChatGPT, can now browse the internet again. This feature, aptly named Browse with Bing, allows the assistant to access real-time information and provides citation links for its answers.
ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021. pic.twitter.com/pyj8a9HWkB
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 27, 2023
The browsing function will initially be available only to Plus and Enterprise users. The OpenAI team claims this feature will be handy for tasks requiring up-to-date information, like technical research, making product choices, or planning holidays.
Past experiences and future updates
ChatGPT had previously offered internet browsing to Plus subscribers as recently as July, but that feature was removed after users took advantage of it to bypass paywalls. This new update follows another significant enhancement announced earlier in the week, which introduced multimodal functions to the chatbot.