OpenAI expands access to ChatGPT Search for all users

AI heavyweight OpenAI is set to open up its ChatGPT Search product to all users, moving beyond the initial exclusivity for paid subscribers.

The company had planned to expand the facility to free users from the outset, and now that has materialized within a matter of weeks, as reported by Bloomberg. The tool will now be available to anyone with an account for OpenAI, across mobile apps and the web.

First launched last month, ChatGPT Search was designed to provide “fast, timely answers with links to relevant web sources, which you would have previously needed to go to a search engine for”

The extended launch means users can now set ChatGPT Search as their default search engine on their web browser, firing a shot toward Google in the ever-increasing competition stakes. 

When OpenAI confirmed the update on Day Eight of their 12-day live-streamed product events, they demonstrated the new tool by searching for activities in Zurich before Christmas, with verbal responses returned.

OpenAI has also used the series of displays to introduce a more expensive ChatGPT Pro subscription option, as well as the launch of Sora, an AI video generation tool.

This is another step forward in the evolution of OpenAI, which first introduced ChatGPT in 2022. Since this breakthrough, AI firms have been pushing to introduce generative AI across various services, including online search.

Conversely, Reddit has taken a step in the opposite direction. 

We are familiar with AI developers licensing content from Reddit to train their models, but last week, the mega-site confirmed it was launching its own AI search tool, Reddit Answers.

An official blog post from the company detailed the test launch, envisioned to provide a new method to extract crucial information from Reddit’s plethora of communities.

Image credit: Via Midjourney

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