ChatGPT Can Now Perform Web Searches, but Only Through Bing
You can now surf the web through ChatGPT on mobile, but only through Bing, thanks to the most recent upgrade. According to OpenAI, ChatGPT Plus users can use a new function called Browsing to look up information on Bing.
OpenAI also added drag-and-drop functions to the ChatGPT app for iOS and iPadOS earlier this month. Individual messages can now be dragged and dropped into other applications.
How It’s Done
Both the iOS and Android ChatGPT apps now support browsing. You can enable browsing by selecting GPT-4 in the model switcher and then browsing from the new features section. To do that, you need to choose Browse with Bing from the drop-down menu.
According to OpenAI, browsing is useful to get up to speed with current events and search for information outside of the bot’s original training material. Originally, ChatGPT’s database has only been updated until 2021. If you turn off the browsing feature, the AI will revert back to the original database.
Is Microsoft Restricting CHATGPT?
ChatGPT has evolved into a more useful browsing assistant, which Microsoft and OpenAI originally claimed to be available this year. However, limiting ChatGPT’s search possibilities to Bing seems like a bottleneck. But, OpenAI has a tight partnership with Microsoft, which has invested more than $10 billion in the firm. The commercial incentives appear to be evident here.
To add to that, Bing is far from the be-all and end-all of search engines.
In 2011, an investigation revealed that Bing may have been unfairly favoring Microsoft results over Google links. More recently, Stanford researchers discovered an alarming amount of disinformation in Bing’s top search results.
Looking Past the Limitations
When trying to sum up lengthy research papers or having a question about a specific topic, ChatGPT’s browsing feature is really helpful. What’s more, you can provide the exact link to the research topics while posing the query. It should be noted, though, that if the bot cannot access the content directly, it may produce problems. This typically happens when a website provides a link to the PDF integrated inside it or has a scanned copy of the information. If the information is directly accessible from the website and easily accessible, you’ll get the answer you need.
Conclusion
As more people start using ChatGPT daily, the new mobile app addition will boost its popularity. And, when compared to Google and DeepMind’s Gemini, ChatGPT stands tall as our current pick for the best AI Chatbot.