OpenAI JUST Dropped New ChatGPT Search and It’s Absolutely Fire!

Foreign has finally rolled out its own search engine built right into Chat GPT. So now when you're using Chat GPT, you're also getting real time AI powered web searches. This just launched for paid subscribers, including those on the Search GPT waitlist. But if you're on a free plan, or if you're an enterprise or education user, hang tight. It'll be rolling out to you in the coming weeks. Now, this isn't a standalone search engine like Google or Bing. It's baked right, right into ChatGPT's interface. If Chat GPT thinks your question needs some real time info, it'll trigger a web search automatically. And if you want to manually launch a search, you can do that too. It's all integrated, and honestly, it seems like a big move to catch up with competitors like Google, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot, which have offered web search integration in their own AI systems for a while. So let's dive a bit into what you can actually do with this. During the demo before it launched, Adam Fry, the guy heading up ChatGPT's search team, showed off some cool examples. He looked up Apple's stock and got a fully interactive stock chart, upcoming earnings reports and recent news articles all linked to their original sources. It even has a sidebar with a list of sources so you can just scroll through different websites directly. In another example, he searched for Italian restaurants in San Francisco and and ChatGPT brought up an interactive map with restaurant pins. Super useful if you're looking for something more casual and local. You can even refine results with follow up questions. Here's a fun fact. The new ChatGPT search is powered by a bunch of search tech, with Microsoft's Bing being a major player in the mix. The underlying search model is actually a refined version of GPT4O, which was first released to a limited test group of around 10,000 users under the name SearchGPT back in July. OpenAI has been building this for a while, and there were rumors back in May that they were trying to recruit Google employees to get it right. Until this update, ChatGPT's information was limited to its knowledge cutoff date, which was between 2021 and 2023, depending on the model. With Live search, users can get the latest info, but here's a key point. OpenAI says they're going to keep updating the training data too. So even though Live Search is here, they're still working on improving the model's internal knowledge with new data to keep it fresh. And new search feature is accessible across all platforms iOS, Android, iOS and Windows. Now why might someone prefer this over Google or Bing? Well, first of all, no ads right now. ChatGPT search doesn't have those sponsored results that we all know take up half the page on Google. OpenAI's Nico Felix has confirmed they don't plan to bring ads to ChatGPT, but but there is one catch. The search feature is more resource intensive to run than traditional search engines, so for free users there will be some limits on how often they can use the latest search models. Now Meta is reportedly also working on its own AI search tool, and Google has expanded its AI features to over 100 countries, so it's definitely getting crowded in the AI search space. And as you might expect, there's already some controversy brewing around all of this. News Corp and the New York Times, for example, are in lawsuits with perplexity, I think. Another AI search tool over copyright claims. And the Times is actually suing OpenAI for allegedly using their material to train ChatGPT. But OpenAI seems ready for this. Fry mentioned that OpenAI is working closely with media partners to make sure content is used responsibly, and OpenAI even lets publishers opt out of their web crawler if they don't want their content included. They're not bypassing paywalls either. Speaking of partnerships, OpenAI has inked deals with some major media companies like Hurst, Conde Nast, Axel Springer and News Corp. Fry said that partners get a little more control over how their content shows up in ChatGPT, though they won't be automatically prioritized in search results. So it sounds like OpenAI is trying to play fair with publishers to avoid the legal headaches. Alright, a quick mention here about hallucinations. Fry said ChatGPT search should be more accurate now that it can access up to date information. Remember how Google's AI once told people to put glue on their pizza? Yeah. OpenAI's hoping to avoid those mistakes by having the latest info. Fry admitted though, that mistakes can still happen and if ChatGPT slips up, they'll aim to be transparent about it. One thing that's pretty timely here is that the feature is launching right before the US presidential election, and Fry said OpenAI is paying extra attention to election related searches to make sure accurate sources are shown. They really want ChatGPT to help people find reliable info in these critical areas. And while ChatGPT's search tool has a lot of people talking, it's not the only thing OpenAI has in the works. Their next major AI model, which everyone thought might be called GPT5 probably isn't going to be released this year. CEO Sam Altman explained in a recent Reddit AMA that they're not quite ready to launch a new model of that scale. They're still focused on refining GPT4 and handling all the complexities that come with it. While apparently the models have become so intricate that OpenAI can't keep up with as many parallel projects as they'd like, it's been tough for them to allocate computing power across all the ideas they have. There were tons of questions on Reddit about new features like sora, which is OpenAI's video generation model, and Dall? E's next iteration. People are also curious about features like camera mode and advanced voice mode OR AVM within ChatGPT. OpenAI product chief Kevin Weil said they're working on perfecting Sora and handling issues like safety and impersonation plus scaling compute. So basically Sora and other advanced tools are on the way, but they're not ready to announce release dates yet. When asked about Dall? E's next update, Altman said it's going to be worth the wait, but there's no specific timeline. As for AVM Vision or ChatGPT's camera mode, OpenAI's engineering VP Srinivas Narayanan confirmed there's no set release date yet. Another big point of discussion is OpenAI's business structure. They're transitioning to a for profit model, which has led to some controversy along with some high profile resignations from the company. Recently, Jan Leike, who was a leader on the safety team, left, and he had some pretty strong words about the company's direction, suggesting that safety practices have taken a backseat to shiny products. But OpenAI's team seems optimistic. Narayanan pointed out that they're sad to see colleagues go, but are still shipping new releases and have welcomed some amazing new hires. Oh, and a quick financial tidbit. OpenAI recently closed a big funding round, bringing their valuation to a whopping $157 billion. They also got a $4 billion line of credit, which pushes their liquidity to over $10 billion. It's a huge war chest, but here's the thing, they're expecting about $5 billion in losses on $3.7 billion in revenue this year. So while OpenAI is growing fast, they're also burning through cash. Altman even mentioned in his Reddit AMA that the new search feature is actually his favorite feature since ChatGPT launched. He thinks this conversational search style where users can follow up with more questions just like a normal conversation is faster and easier than regular search engines. Plus, Altman hinted at a pretty cool future where searches could even dynamically render custom web pages based on what you ask. Imagine typing in a question and getting an entire web page built on the fly would with just the information you need. According to OpenAI, this search function lets you search in a more natural, intuitive way. In other words, instead of typing keywords like cheap hotels in nyc, you can ask where's a good budget friendly hotel in New York? And keep refining your search from there. If you're a ChatGPT plus or team subscriber, or if you were on the SearchGPT waitlist, you can use this feature starting today. For everyone else, it's rolling out gradually. Free users, as we mentioned, will get limited access to the latest models. For now, ChatGPT's search is a pretty big step toward giving us all a more interactive, intuitive way to search for information. So we'll see where it goes, especially as Google and Microsoft are still very much in the game too. So what do you guys think about all this? Let me know in the comments. And as always, if you enjoyed this breakdown. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more on the latest in AI and tech. Thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.