ChatGPT can now browse the internet, no longer limited to info from 2021

The browsing update is limited to Plus and Enterprise subscribers for now but will roll out to all users “soon,” says OpenAI.

ChatGPT can now browse the web and integrate up-to-date information into its responses, according to a Sept. 27 post on X (formerly Twitter) from artificial intelligence (AI) firm OpenAI. 

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 updates are available immediately for Plus and Enterprise users using the GPT-4 model, according to the post. The web browsing feature will be available for other users “soon,” but OpenAI didn’t specify whether that meant GPT-4 would be enabled for non-premium users or if browsing would be implemented for the GPT 3.5 model.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a request for clarification.

Per the post:

“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.”

Before this update, ChatGPT suffered from an ever-widening gap in its knowledge base. Due to the nature of how AI models such as generative pre-trained transformers (GPT) are trained, ChatGPT’s knowledge base previously ended in 2021 — presumably the year it was essentially finalized for production.

In previous testing, OpenAI reported successes and setbacks in its attempts to implement browsing with ChatGPT. In June of 2023, reports began to surface that beta versions of ChatGPT with browse were being used to bypass paywalls. It also appeared to have a penchant for hallucinating and sometimes conflating recent and historical information.

Related: CIA to build its own ChatGPT-style AI bot for investigations: Report

ChatGPT’s browsing feature update follows directly on the heels of OpenAI’s Sept. 25 announcement that the chatbot was also receiving a multimodal update:

ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak. Rolling out over next two weeks, Plus users will be able to have voice conversations with ChatGPT (iOS & Android) and to include images in conversations (all platforms). https://t.co/uNZjgbR5Bm pic.twitter.com/paG0hMshXb

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 25, 2023

As Cointelegraph reported, ChatGPT, GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, will be able to understand plain language spoken queries and respond in one of five different voices as well as view and interpret images.

OpenAI also recently announced DALL-E 3, the latest version of its image-generation AI.

With the slew of updates sweeping across the company’s products, it’ll be interesting to see what it has left to reveal at its first-ever developer’s conference, OpenAI DevDay, slated to take place on Nov. 6 in San Francisco.