ChatGPT Users Can Now Browse the Web as OpenAI Expands Data Access Beyond 2021 Cutoff

ChatGPT users will now be able to surf the web, Microsoft-backed OpenAI said on Wednesday, pushing the data the viral chatbot can access beyond an early September 2021 deadline.

The artificial intelligence startup says its latest browsing feature will allow websites to control how ChatGPT interacts with them.

OpenAI said in a post on social media platform Choose Browse with Bing in your browser.” as Twitter.

The startup also announced a major update earlier this week that enables ChatGPT to have voice conversations with users and interact with them using images, bringing it closer to popular artificial intelligence assistants like Apple’s Siri.

OpenAI earlier tested a feature that allows users to access the latest information through the Bing search engine in its premium ChatGPT Plus product. But it was later deactivated due to concerns that it might allow users to bypass paywalls.

ChatGPT became the fastest-growing consumer app in history earlier this year, hitting 100 million monthly active users in January before being overtaken by Meta’s Threads app.

Its rise has boosted investor interest in OpenAI, with media outlets including Reuters reporting on Tuesday that the startup was in discussions with shareholders to potentially sell existing stock at a much higher valuation than it had achieved just a few months ago.

Last week, OpenAI also launched Dall-E 3, the latest version of its text-to-image tool, which uses ChatGPT to help fill in prompts. Dall-E 3 will also be available via API to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers in October, the company said. Users can enter image requests and adjust prompts through conversations with ChatGPT.

OpenAI says creators can choose not to use some or all of their work to train future text-to-image tools.

© Thomson Reuters 2023