OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has announced that the artificial intelligence-powered chatbot can once again browse the internet, thereby providing users with more up-to-date information.

The firm took to social media platform X to announce “Browse with Bing,” stating that with the feature, ChatGPT is no longer limited to the data it had been trained on, which didn’t go past September 2021.

Underpinned by Microsoft’s search engine, the feature “is particularly useful for tasks that require up-to-date information, such as helping you with technical research, trying to choose a bike, or planning a vacation,” OpenAI wrote.

Currently, the feature is only available to users on the ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise plans. However, it will be expanded to “all users soon.”

Browse with Bing was technically launched as a beta feature in May, but its use was paused two months later over concerns on how it could circumvent paywalls.

In an update in July, the AI company wrote that “We have learned that the ChatGPT Browse beta can occasionally display content in ways we don’t want. For example, if a user specifically asks for a URL’s full text, it might inadvertently fulfill this request.”

This has now seemingly been rectified, with the company stating that “Since the original launch of browsing in May, we received useful feedback. Updates include following robots.txt and identifying user agents so sites can control how ChatGPT interacts with them.”

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s co-founder and chief executive, reposted the announcement via his X account, adding: “we are so back.”

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The All Seeing, All Speaking — and All Searching — ChatGPT

The Browse with Bing announcement quickly follows another notable ChatGPT announcement this week: the rolling out of new voice and image capabilities.

Over the next few weeks, OpenAI is set to provide these features to Plus and Enterprise users, with voice being available on iOS and Android devices, and images on all platforms.

The new voice capability — which allows for “back-and-forth conversation,” and is “capable of generating human-like audio from text and a few seconds of sample speech” — is underpinned by a “new text-to-speech model.”

OpenAI noted that it recognises the wider potential for voice technology to be used for dubious means, including impersonation and fraud. “This is why we are using this technology to power a specific use case—voice chat. Voice chat was created with voice actors we have directly worked with,” wrote the AI company.

As for the new image capabilities, it’s possible to show ChatGPT images and start a conversation or seek advice from it that way. “Troubleshoot why your grill won’t start, explore the contents of your fridge to plan a meal, or analyze a complex graph for work-related data,” the AI company suggested.

While the features are again limited to Plus and Enterprise users, OpenAI has plans to roll them out to “other groups of users, including developers, soon after.”