How to use ChatGPT to access the internet: Features and more explained

ChatGPT recently got access to the internet, making it even more powerful and relevant. It can now pull real-time information from the internet, like weather info and news, as well as draft summaries and reports in a matter of seconds. This addition brings the OpenAI chatbot closer to Google's Bard. However, there is a catch.

Real-time internet access isn't available on ChatGPT's free plan, which runs on the GPT-3 model. Instead, it is exclusive to GPT-4, which is part of the company's paid plan. Thus, users will have to part with $20 every month to get access to the latest feature.

In this article, we'll go over the new additions to ChatGPT that weren't possible before. The chatbot can now get more done and is an interesting tool to have around.

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ChatGPT can now access the internet: What does this mean?

The GPT-4-based model of ChatGPT Plus can use all information published on the internet to date. Earlier, its data was capped till September 2021, i.e. the chatbot had no idea of events after 2021 like RTX 40 series GPU launches.

The Web Browsing mode is available under Beta features (Image via OpenAI)

Plus users can turn on the Web Browsing option by going to Settings and then Beta Features to get access to the internet. Don't forget to use the GPT-4 web browsing template since it is way better at drafting conclusions than the older GPT-3.5-powered chatbot.

Once you enter a prompt with browsing turned on, the chatbot will initiate a search and visit pages one by one to gather information about the topic. After that, it will generate content and summaries based on the data it gathered.

The chatbot also adds citations to all of its claims, which will directly lead you to the source. This is a handy feature that will help with the generated content's credibility.

Here's a list of all the new features in OpenAI's chatbot:

1. It can now summarize the latest news. This might be a bold move from OpenAI since the chatbot has been infamous for producing inaccurate details in the past. We recommend you cross-check the details before concluding.
2. The bot can detect trends on the internet, which will be a massively useful tool for content marketers and businessmen. It can also be applied to analyze stock trends and figure out the best companies to invest in.
3. It can do everything it was capable of previously, but better. The list includes up-to-date essays and academic research with citations. The updated version can also be applied to write code with the latest documentation.
4. ChatGPT can also explain recent and complex events like inflation, newly published research papers, up-to-date coverage of sports events, and much more.

This update is the biggest move forward for the viral AI-powered chatbot. To date, its biggest drawback was the unavailability of up-to-date information.

With the latest information at its fingertips, ChatGPT just got way more powerful, relevant, and helpful.

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How does ChatGPT compare to Google Bard?

GPT-4 is the best generative text AI on the planet right now, even better than Google's LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Application) that powers Bard. With access to the internet, ChatGPT can provide more detailed results and detailed conclusions as compared to Bard and Claude. We are expecting high-quality human-like results from the OpenAI-made chatbot.

In our testing, we found that GPT-4 is way slower than Bard, which has access to all pages indexed by Google. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that Google's chatbot comes up with higher-quality results every time.

Additionally, OpenAI's chatbot has a higher failure rate. The web browsing feature is still in beta, so we can't expect it to be perfect just yet.