ChatGPT will again have a connection to the Internet. As in the spring, the chatbot can now access current information using the “Browse with Bing” function. This is still in beta status, and the web search is initially limited to the business and paid ChatGPT Plus versions.
In the future, however, all versions – including the free one – should be supplemented with web access.
Paywalls could be bypassed with ChatGPT
OpenAI had already implemented the Bing extension in ChatGPT in the spring. Because users could, among other things, bypass paywalls in this way, the function was temporarily removed in May. Loud The Register It was sometimes possible to access content from paid offers via ChatGPT by having them summarized.
But OpenAI has now upgraded. The company’s web crawler can now be used exclude via the Robot.txt. Media platforms can therefore decide that OpenAI does not have access to certain websites in order to protect the content.
Current data doesn’t always help
Web access is relevant for ChatGPT because otherwise the information status ends in September 2021. More current information can then only be partially accessed via plugins. Competing offers such as Microsoft’s Bing Chat or Copilot – which are also based on OpenAI’s GPT-4 language model – or Google’s Bard, on the other hand, have a web connection by default and can therefore always access current data.
However, web access is not always helpful. If generative AI chatbots are intended to be an alternative to search engines, there is no way around it. However, it can sometimes even be a hindrance for specific tasks, which is why Microsoft is also working on a “no-search” plugin for Bing. You should benefit from applications such as solving complex mathematical tasks, coding or even everyday conversations with the chatbot without a web connection Neowin.