ChatGPT is very useful because it gives us an answer without having to perform a web search. It can often replace a traditional Google search.
However, ChatGPT does have its limitations. For example, it isn’t aware of the latest world events. Sometimes, it helps to do a web search. Good news: ChatGPT can search the web for you when needed.
It uses the Bing search engine to search and read through web pages. Why Bing? OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has an agreement with Microsoft, the creator of Bing (Google’s competitor). Yes, it’s a small world! 😅
In this chapter, I’m going to suggest three ways of conducting a web search with ChatGPT in order to:
get information about recent events.
get precise information on a lesser-known event.
consult (and summarize) a specific web page for us.
Get Information About Recent Events
As explained in the first few chapters, ChatGPT is a tool that has been trained by feeding it huge amounts of information (and I mean huge amounts!). It’s as if it swallowed almost all of Wikipedia, all the news from the world’s newspapers, nearly every research article, and more. 😳
However, it does have one small flaw: its knowledge of the world stops at a specific date. You could say it has great “general knowledge” but no recent information. For example, at the time of writing, its knowledge stops in April 2023.
Fortunately, with GPT-4 (included in the ChatGPT Plus subscription), it can search the web for us! The search function will be automatically activated if you ask questions related to recent events:
Recent News: “What were the three most important international news stories from yesterday?”
Sporting Events: “Who won the US Open tennis final this year?”
Upcoming Movies and TV Series: “What new movies are available on Netflix this month?”
Technological Updates: “What are the latest features announced for iPhone 15?”
Economic Statistics: “What is the current unemployment rate in France?”
Let’s try it out:
🧔🏻♂️: What is the current unemployment rate in France?
🤖: In the third quarter of 2023, the unemployment rate in France was 7.4%. This represents an increase of 0.2 points compared to the previous quarter, with a total of 2.3 million people unemployed, according to the International Labour Office (ILO). [”]
When you ask this kind of question, you should see a Bing search running in the background.
The computer chooses the search to perform and then consults websites to read the information and return it to you. 🤯
The main advantage of this method is that you are provided with links to the sources, so you can go and read them yourself to verify the ChatGPT responses. It’s important to verify the credibility of sources!
Get Precise Information on a Lesser-Known Event
ChatGPT knows a lot of things. It has excellent general knowledge. (Don’t play Trivial Pursuit against it! 😆) Nevertheless, it doesn’t know everything either. For example, if you request information about a lesser-known event that happened in a small village, it’s unlikely to know about it.
If it doesn’t know the answer, it will automatically start a web search!
🧔🏻♂️: Give me three interesting facts about Lambesc
🤖: Here are three interesting facts about the town of Lambesc, located in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, in France:
Historical and Cultural Heritage: Lambesc is rich in historical and cultural heritage, with remarkable sites such as the Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption church and the 11th-century Romanesque chapel of Sainte-Anne de Goiron.
Origin of the Name: The first mention of the town as “villa Lambisco” dates back to the year 814. The name evolved from “Lambisco” in 965-977 to “Lambescho” around 1200. The suffix “iscum” is thought to be Ligurian in origin, and the prefix “lam-b-” may mean “mountain” in pre-Latin.
Seismic Zone: Lambesc is located in a medium-level seismic zone, classified as seismic zone IV according to a French decree of October 22, 2010. The town was the site of the France’s most powerful earthquake ever recorded with a magnitude of 6.2, which took place on June 11, 1909.
If ChatGPT doesn’t know the answer (because the subject is generally lesser known), it will automatically perform a web search to give you the information. In this case, it searched through Lambesc’s Wikipedia page and its official website to find this information, as it had no prior knowledge of it.
Consult and Summarize a Specific Web Page
I sometimes encounter very long articles and need a summary that I can read in less than two minutes. If you’re specific, you can copy and paste the URL of the page to be summarized and possibly tell it to use Bing to go and read the page. Request a summary of the page, and you’re done!
🧔🏻♂️: Open the following page and summarize it. Use Bing if required. https://www.jean-jaures.org/publication/qui-veut-la-peau-de-lapprentissage
🤖: The article “Who wants to put an end to apprenticeships?” by the Fondation Jean-Jaurès, examines the current challenges facing the apprenticeship system in France. It emphasizes that, despite their quantitative success, apprenticeships are the subject of intense criticism, often mixed with corporate interests and political games, making it difficult to distinguish between justified and biased criticism. The article highlights the importance of apprenticeships as a means of social and educational advancement, while recognizing the need to professionalize certain training organizations and standardize the quality of their services to better meet the needs of society and the economy. It also highlights the complexity and diversity of apprenticeships in France, particularly in terms of the different types of apprentice training centers and the associated financial issues.
Sometimes, you need to think outside the box. If I had simply requested a summary of the page by copying the URL, ChatGPT would have refused to do it, claiming that it couldn’t open the page. Adding “Use Bing if necessary” instructs it to launch the search engine to read the page content. Sometimes you have to be persistent! 😆
Let’s Recap
ChatGPT, especially version GPT-4, can use Bing to perform web searches in order to provide up-to-date and relevant information, even on recent or lesser-known topics.
ChatGPT activates this feature in three main situations:
Get information about recent events.
Find out more about lesser-known topics.
Consult and summarize specific web pages.
Access to the web search feature requires a ChatGPT Plus subscription. This system expands ChatGPT’s vast—yet static—knowledge base with the latest information.
Have your ChatGPT web searches been successful? We haven’t finished yet! In the next chapter, we’ll find out how to analyze images with ChatGPT.
