The Gloves Are Off: ChatGPT Can Now Access the Internet Like a Big AI

That's right, all you AI fanatics out there. They're letting ChatGPT out of its cage. Before September 21st, the "little chat bot that could" was limited to providing info it learned before September 2021. That's no longer the case. After gaining the ability to "see" and "talk" on Tuesday, a Reuters report says the chat bot has now been given the ability to browse the Internet and even link to sources.


This thing keeps picking up speed. Pretty soon, we'll be able to get it to mow the lawn or cook dinner for us.

The biggest advantage is that you can get ChatGPT to operate for you using the latest information on a given topic. It also means the AI won't play stupid when you feed it questions about something that happened beyond its range of knowledge. There are no limits on what it can do for you now.

As is almost always the case, this ability is only available to, you guessed it, Plus and Enterprise users, but Microsoft promised to "expand to all users soon."

In case you're wondering how to make it happen, Open AI, in a post on the former Twitter, said, "Browsing is available to Plus and Enterprise users today, and we'll expand to all users soon. To enable, choose Browse with Bing in the selector under GPT-4."

Cool, that sounds easy enough.

If you've been keeping up, you might remember that OpenAI has tested this feature before by allowing users access to the Internet and the latest information through the Bing search engine as a premium ChatGPT Plus offering. That little experiment was a failure and sent packing due to concern that it could allow users to bypass paywalls.

While the battle over all things AI rages on in senate hearings, writer's strikes, and many other places where people are concerned about inhuman interference, ChatGPT goes on its happy way. In fact, ChatGPT took its place as the fastest-growing consumer application in history earlier this year, snagging 100 million monthly active users in January.

That's "in history," as in the history of consumer applications. Think about that. It's sort of like the odds of being an actual "rock band" getting into the "Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" these days. We all love Dolly Parton, but rock 'n' roll? Come on. Even Dolly doesn't buy it.

Here's the deal, folks. AI is here to stay, like it or not, and one of the big players is Open AI, with Microsoft and ChatGPT taking the wheel.

If you're an AI fan, OpenAI is doing its best to keep you happy.

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