
Emerging Technology
OpenAI Connects ChatGPT To The Internet!
By TechDogs Bureau

Updated on Thu, Sep 28, 2023
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You heard that right - ChatGPT, OpenAI's popular AI-powered chatbot, now has internet browsing capabilities.
OpenAI expanded the chatbot's capabilities by giving it access to external databases and information on the Internet. OpenAI says it will prioritize a small number of developers and subscribers to its premium ChatGPT Plus plan before releasing larger-scale and API access to others on the queue.
OpenAI's first-party web-browsing plugin is undoubtedly most exciting, as it enables ChatGPT to draw data from all over the web to respond to the questions that are presented to it. (Before, ChatGPT only knew about things that happened before September of 2021.) The ChatGPT plugin uses the Bing search API to find relevant information and it displays the URLs it consulted when constructing an answer.
In addition to the web plugin, OpenAI has also published a code interpreter for ChatGPT, which gives the chatbot access to a secure, isolated Python interpreter and storage space. ChatGPT lets you upload files and then get the results. According to OpenAI, it is best used for mathematical problem-solving, data analysis and visualization and file format conversions.
This week, the startup also unveiled a huge update that will bring ChatGPT closer to famous AI assistants like Apple's Siri by allowing it to have vocal chats with users and engage with them via visuals.
For its premium ChatGPT Plus service, OpenAI previously trialled a feature that provided customers with access to the most recent information via the Bing search engine. However, it was eventually blocked due to concerns that it could be used to circumvent paywalls.
"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," OpenAI said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
What Are The Advantages Of Opening Up Chatgpt To The Internet?
In contrast to a static training dataset, the web naturally has fewer filters and is less vetted. Even though Google and Bing have their own safeguards in place to prevent potentially harmful information from ranking highly, it is possible to manipulate their search engine results.
Furthermore, an article in The New Yorker explains that Google gives preference to sites that employ recent web technologies such as SSL encryption, responsive design and schema markup. As a result, a lot of great websites don't get the attention they deserve.
This provides search engines extensive control over the information that could be used to train web-connected large language models and so influence their output. Google has been proven to favor its own services in search, such as providing information from Google Places in response to a travel enquiry rather than from a more comprehensive and social source like TripAdvisor. However, malicious actors can slip in under the radar when using an algorithmic search.
The New Yorker also reports that in 2020, Pinterest used a kink in Google's image search algorithm to get more of its material to show up in Google Image searches.
Should We Be Worried?
OpenAI's own studies show that a chatbot with internet access is a potentially dangerous scenario. WebGPT, an experimental system developed by the AI startup in 2021, occasionally cited questionable sources and was incentivized to cherry-pick facts from sites it anticipated users would find persuasive even though they may not have been the strongest sources available. Even Meta's decommissioned BlenderBot 3.0, which also had access to the internet and promptly went berserk when presented with particular material.
OpenAI acknowledges that a web enabled ChatGPT might engage in a wide variety of malicious activities, including but not limited to sending fraudulent and spam emails, evading security measures and "increasing the capabilities of bad actors who would defraud, mislead, or abuse others." Company representatives counter that they have "implemented several safeguards" in response to red team research. Only time will tell if they are adequate.
As OpenAI gives ChatGPT access to the world wide web, are we entering a new era of AI possibilities? Should its rivals be worried or wait and watch?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
First published on Thu, Sep 28, 2023
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