ChatGPT now has access to up-to-date data.

OpenAI, the developer of Microsoft-backed ChatGPT, has confirmed that the chatbot can now surf the web to provide users with up-to-date information. The AI-supported system has so far only been trained with data up to September 2021.

The move means some premium users will be able to ask the chatbot questions about current events and access news. OpenAI said the feature will be available to all users soon.

Earlier this week, OpenAI also announced that the chatbot will soon be able to have voice conversations with users. ChatGPT and other similar systems use massive amounts of data to create compelling, human-like responses to user queries.They are expected to dramatically change the way people search for information online.

But so far the “knowledge” of the viral chatbot has been frozen in time. Its database was extracted from the content of the Internet as of September 2021. They couldn't search the network in real time.

For example, in the free version, if you ask when the last time an earthquake hit Turkey or if Donald Trump is still alive, you will get the answer: "I'm sorry, but I can't provide real-time information."

ChatGPT's inability to take current events into account has turned off some potential users.

“If this functionality or capability were not available, you would have to go to Google or Twitter or your favorite news portal. Now you can use this as a source for the latest news, gossip and current events,” says Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Professor of Business Psychology at University College London.

"So the main impact is that it will absorb a lot of the incoming questions and searches that went to the search engines or the media," he said. However, Mr Chamorro-Premuzic added that using the platform for searches could be a double-edged sword.

"I think it's good when it comes to getting quick answers to your burning, urgent questions," he said, but warned that information provided through ChatGPT without sources could be misleading.

"If you don't reliably state what the sources are and just make a mixture of what's out there..."“So the concerns are about accuracy and people just assume that the information they are getting is reliable when it is not.”

OpenAI has already been investigated by US regulators over the risk of ChatGPT generating false information.

Earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent a letter to the Microsoft-backed company asking for information about how it handles reputational risks for individuals. In response, OpenAI's CEO said the company would work with the FTC.

There were several reasons why ChatGPT had not previously searched the Internet: firstly, the computational costs.It is often said that each query costs OpenAI pennies. Most importantly, the limited data provided a valuable safety net.

ChatGPT was unable to begin playing harmful or illegal material newly uploaded to the network in response to a request.

He couldn't spread misinformation about politics or health decisions planted by bad actors because he didn't have access to it.

When asked why it took so long to allow users to search for updated information, the chatbot itself gave three answers.

He said that developing language models is time and resource intensive, that the use of real-time data has the potential to introduce inaccuracies, and that there are some ethical and privacy concerns about access to real-time information, particularly protected content. for copyright without permission. .

ChatGPT's new features perfectly illustrate the enormous dilemma facing the AI ​​industry.To be truly useful, the railings need to be removed or at least loosened. However, this makes the technology potentially more dangerous and vulnerable to misuse.