New "Deep Research" Feature From OpenAI
OpenAI has introduced "Deep Research," a new feature for ChatGPT, allowing it to search the internet and create reports "at the level of a research analyst."
According to OpenAI's blog on February 2, deep research is built for those working deeply in fields like finance, science, policy, and engineering, who need thorough, accurate, and reliable information.
OpenAI also said this feature is useful for research before making large purchases like cars or appliances; the results can take 5 to 30 minutes to complete and "are fully documented, with clear citations and a summary of thoughts."
Example of ChatGPT's "deep research" mode showing the process and citations. Source: OpenAI
Recent AI-Related Events
This new feature comes after OpenAI launched Operator on January 23, a ChatGPT agent that can use the internet to perform tasks like grocery ordering and travel booking.
This occurred about a week after the AI market and U.S. tech stocks were shaken by a new AI model from Chinese company DeepSeek, reported to perform as well as ChatGPT but at a much lower cost.
Microsoft and OpenAI are said to be investigating whether data from ChatGPT's API has been stolen by a group associated with DeepSeek.
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Deep Research
OpenAI said the deep research agent set a new record in the Humanity's Last Exam AI evaluation with 3,000 expert-level questions across over 100 topics, achieving 26.6% accuracy compared to 9.4% for DeepSeek-R-1 and 3.3% for OpenAI's GPT-4o model.
This agent is controlled by OpenAI's o3 model but "optimized for web browsing and data analysis." OpenAI o3 is the company's newest "reasoning" model, aiming to self-check to avoid mistakes.
Warnings From OpenAI
OpenAI warned that deep research "can sometimes imagine events that did not actually occur or draw incorrect conclusions" and may "struggle to distinguish credible information from rumors."
Last month, Google announced it will launch a similar "Deep Research" feature for its Gemini AI model in early 2025, while OpenAI said this agent is currently available in the Pro plan for $200 per month, with a limit of 100 queries per month.
