Spooked by DeepSeek, OpenAI launches new ChatGPT tool

OpenAI introduced a new AI tool called "deep research" on Sunday, designed to conduct multi-step research for complex tasks by browsing the internet. This launch follows a wave of excitement in Silicon Valley spurred by DeepSeek, a new Chinese AI chatbot that has impressed with its high performance and low cost, prompting US developers to accelerate their own efforts.

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, which played a key role in bringing generative AI to the public's attention in 2022, stated that its new deep research tool can complete in minutes what would take humans hours. The tool is powered by an upcoming version of OpenAI's o3 model, optimized for web browsing and data analysis.

With deep research, users provide a prompt, and ChatGPT searches, analyzes, and synthesizes information from various online sources like text, images, and PDFs to generate a detailed report equivalent to that of a research analyst. According to OpenAI, the tool can perform tasks significantly faster than humans.

However, OpenAI also noted that deep research is still in its early stages and has some limitations. It may struggle to differentiate between authoritative sources and rumors, and its confidence levels often fail to accurately reflect uncertainty.

Currently available on the web version of ChatGPT, deep research will be expanded to mobile and desktop apps in February. This launch follows OpenAI's preview of another AI tool called Operator in January, which can handle various tasks like making to-do lists and helping with vacation planning.