ChatGPT’s AI Search Tool Is Now Available

As a journalist, a core task I see myself experimenting with ChatGPT more is the initial research phase for non-sensitive articles, and only as a small part of the overall research process. It’s a lower-stake task usually completed using Google. Potentially incorporating AI search methods early in my writing leaves plenty of opportunities to catch any hallucinations that may pop up.

The Internet isn’t just full of research articles and stock prices, though. Explicit content drives search interest and proliferates online. Well, not for AI search tools. Erotic content goes against OpenAI’s policies, and nudity is unlikely to appear in any of your image results. When I asked for recommendations as to which OnlyFans creators are worth subscribing to, ChatGPT’s first pick was “Jane Doe,” and her supposedly wholesome content includes workout tips and nutrition plans. A photo of a real woman, who’s casually dressed and does not appear to be an OnlyFans creator, surfaced with the result.

In an effort to test the limits of ChatGPT’s search further, I followed up with a more specific request for creators who are “male bottoms.” The software started to generate a foul-mouthed bulleted list, with real creators aggregated from a website: “Elijah is a very attractive bottom who keeps it tight, oiled up, and very hot.” But almost as soon as the words generated, OpenAI’s software struck the output as violating guidelines and deleted it. OpenAI claims it is working to improve how ChatGPT responds to violations of safeguards.

I was most disappointed to see ChatGPT surface racist and debunked information suggesting that people from specific countries are lower in intelligence. In October, a WIRED investigation by David Gilbert uncovered a pattern of AI search tools citing racist and debunked IQ scores for African countries, like Liberia and Sierra Leone. ChatGPT’s search highlighted the debunked 45.07 IQ number as potentially relevant, at the same time, it also linked to David’s reporting as a counterpoint within the result.

In response, Niko Felix, a spokesperson for OpenAI, says, “Although ChatGPT acknowledges criticisms of these particular studies from sources like WIRED, there is still room for improvement in its responses.”

Despite some of the initial flaws in ChatGPT’s search update, I expect OpenAI to continue improving the user experience throughout 2025 and build upon this wave of web results. A few days before this announcement, the news leaked that Meta also has its own AI team working on search tools. While still nascent, AI search is no longer some niche part of the software market, and more companies will try their hand at it. And if user habits really do shift in the few years, controlling the next, hot info-gathering tool, with shopping and sports scores galore, is a billion dollar business.