Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

ChatGPT’s iPhone app now has Bing built-in

By Trevor Mogg June 27, 2023

ChatGPT for iOS now offers a connection to Bing for a user experience that incorporates more up-to-date information.

There is a caveat, however, as only paid subscribers to the app’s premium Plus tier are able to take advantage of the new feature.

It means that the AI-powered ChatGPT app will now be able to pull up more recent information instead of only using older web-based data that it’s been trained on, which reaches as far as 2021.

“Plus users can now use ‘Browsing’ to get comprehensive answers and current insights on events and information that extend beyond the model’s original training data,” OpenAI said in notes for the latest version of ChatGPT for iPhone, released on Tuesday.

Users of the paid Plus tier can try it out by enabling Browsing in the “New Features” section of the app’s settings. Next, select GPT-4 in the model switcher and choose “Browse with Bing” in the drop-down.

While it’s a disappointment that the update allows engagement only with Bing and not other search engines, it’s no surprise that it’s this particular search tool that ChatGPT has incorporated. That’s because Bing is made by Microsoft, the company that earlier this year announced a major investment in OpenAI. The funding, which follows two other similar rounds of support by Microsoft in 2019 and 2021, was reportedly worth as much as $10 billion. ChatGPT is also already a part of Bing search for web and is integrated into Microsoft’s Edge browser.

OpenAI released the free ChatGPT app for iPhone last month. ChatGPT Plus costs $20 per month with benefits including smooth access to ChatGPT during peak times, faster response times, and priority access to new features and improvements.

Only just heard about the ChatGPT chatbot? It’s not too late to start learning about it, as it won’t be going away anytime soon. Digital Trends has a useful article explaining what it’s all about, and how you can try it out for yourself.

You might also want to try Google’s AI-powered chatbot, called Bard. But first, find out how it shapes up against ChatGPT.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributing Editor

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…

Mobile

The Amazon app on your phone just got a cool AI feature

Rufus AI chatbot in Amazon app.

Last year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said that every business division at the company was experimenting with AI. Today, Amazon has announced its most ambitious AI product yet: a chatbot named Rufus to assist with your online shopping.
Imagine ChatGPT, but one that knows every detail about all the products in Amazon’s vast catalog. Plus, it is also connected to the web, which means it can pull information from the internet to answer your questions. For example, if you plan to buy a microSD card, Rufus can tell you which speed class is the best for your photography needs.
Amazon says you can type all your questions in the search box, and Rufus will handle the rest. The generative AI chatbot is trained on “product catalog, customer reviews, community Q&As, and information from across the web.”
In a nutshell, Amazon wants to decouple the hassle of looking up articles on the web before you make up your mind and then arrive on Amazon to put an item in your cart. Another benefit of Rufus is that instead of reading through a product page for a certain tiny detail, you can ask the question directly and get the appropriate responses.

An AI nudge to informed shopping

Mobile

Here are Apple’s secret plans for adding AI to your iPhone

A person holding the Apple iPhone 15 Plus and Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max (left) and Apple iPhone 15 Plus Andy Boxall / Digital Trends

After the AI gala that was Samsung’s Galaxy S24 series phones, Apple could be the next to tap into the magic of deep learning and Large Language Models (LLM) that power tools such as ChatGPT and Google Bard. According to an industry analysis report by Financial Times, Apple has been on a hot acquisition streak, team reorganizations, and fresh hiring to develop AI capabilities for iPhones.

Mobile

This is Pi — one of the most amazing Android apps I used in 2023

Calling interface of Pi Digital assistant on Android.

“Find me a few books on mindfulness and meditation.” I posed the question to ChatGPT, and it put a list of 16 books with the authors' names divided across the two categories I described. It was a quick, albeit somewhat overwhelming, way to process the flood of information. There’s nothing wrong with being forthright.

But sometimes, we need an additional nugget of knowledge to guide us. After all, we often have questions we never ask but realize we always wanted it when someone dishes out the counsel. I took my query to another assistant named Pi, and it held a conversation with me, just like a real human guide would seek to help you.