ChatGPT can now access up to date information

OpenAI, the Microsoft-backed creator of ChatGPT, has confirmed the chatbot can now browse the internet to provide users with current information.

The artificial intelligence-powered system was previously trained only using data up to September 2021.

The move means some premium users will be able to ask the chatbot questions about current affairs, and access news.

OpenAI said the feature would open up to all users soon.

Earlier in the week, OpenAI also revealed the chatbot will soon be able to have voice conversations with users.

ChatGPT and other similar systems use huge amounts of data to create convincing human-like responses to user queries.

They are expected to dramatically change the way people search for information online.

But until now the viral chatbot's "knowledge" has been frozen in time. Its database has been drawn from the contents of the internet as it was in September 2021. It could not browse the net in real time.

So, for example, ask the free version when an earthquake last struck Turkey, or whether Donald Trump is still alive and it replies "'I'm sorry, but I cannot provide real-time information".

ChatGPT's inability to take recent events into account has been a turn-off for some potential users.

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