ChatGPT Search is an AI-powered search engine built into the ChatGPT interface. When users prompt the engine, it crawls external websites (like a traditional search engine), after which it generates personalised responses with citations to external sources.
How ChatGPT Search Works
ChatGPT Search uses trusted third-party search providers and content from partners to provide relevant information to users. To improve results, ChatGPT may:
- Rewrite prompts: ChatGPT may reframe users’ questions into one or more targeted queries before sending them to providers.
- Eg. If you ask, “Is drinking coffee good for your health?”, ChatGPT may rewrite this internally as “Health effects of drinking coffee” to make the search more precise and ensures results come from authoritative health sources
- Use your general location: To make results more relevant, ChatGPT may collect general location (based on IP). Users’ IP address and account details are never shared with search providers.
- Eg. If you ask, “How is the weather today?”, ChatGPT may search for “Singapore weather today”.
- Using ChatGPT Memory (optional): If ChatGPT Memory is enabled, ChatGPT may use the relevant information to refine user prompts to be more useful. Click here to learn more about ChatGPT Memory.
- Eg. If you ask, “Restaurants near me” and ChatGPT remembers from previous conversations that you are vegetarian and live in Singapore, it may search “Vegetarian restaurants in Singapore”.
How to Use ChatGPT Search
- ChatGPT Search may be activated automatically or manually:
- Automatic: Ask your question in natural language, and ChatGPT may search the web if needed.
- Manually: Click the ‘+’ button, then select ‘Web search’ to activate ChatGPT Search.
- Prompt the model in natural language. ChatGPT Search will return links to external links, as well as generate a summary of key insights
Reference: OpenAI
