OpenAI, the company behind the popular chatbot ChatGPT, has officially launched real-time internet browsing capabilities for the AI system. This comes after several weeks of testing and beta versions of the feature. Previously, ChatGPT was limited to data sets that ended in September 2021, but OpenAI has been working to expand its capabilities to include more current information.
The company first experimented with a web-browsing plugin for a limited number of users in March, but it was put on hold in June after some users found a way to bypass paywalls. OpenAI has since reintroduced the feature, allowing site owners to opt out of web crawling. As of this week, Browse with Bing, the web-browsing capability, is officially out of beta.
In addition to real-time internet browsing, ChatGPT can now generate images using OpenAI's DALL-E 3, its image-generation AI model. This feature has been rolled out to certain users in beta mode. OpenAI claims that ChatGPT can accurately translate users' ideas into images, from simple sentences to detailed paragraphs.
ChatGPT has seen tremendous success since its launch in November, becoming the fastest-growing consumer application ever recorded, according to a UBS study. It has attracted about 100 million monthly active users in just two months. This success has sparked an AI arms race among tech giants, with companies like Google racing to develop their own chatbot competitors.
OpenAI has received significant investment, including an additional $10 billion from Microsoft earlier this year. In April, the startup reportedly closed a $300 million share sale with a valuation between $27 billion and $29 billion.
Overall, OpenAI's launch of real-time internet browsing for ChatGPT marks a significant milestone for the company. The expansion of capabilities, including image generation, demonstrates OpenAI's commitment to improving and refining its AI technology. With the success of ChatGPT and the ongoing competition in the chatbot space, it will be interesting to see how OpenAI continues to innovate and differentiate itself in the future.