OpenAI proudly debuted ChatGPT search in October as the next stage for search engines. The company boasted that the new feature combined ChatGPT's conversational skills with the best web search tools, offering real-time information in a more useful form than any list of links. According to a recent review by Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, that celebration may have been premature. The report found ChatGPT to have a somewhat lassie-faire attitude toward accuracy, attribution, and basic reality when sourcing news stories.
What's especially notable is that the problems crop up regardless of whether a publication blocks OpenAI’s web crawlers or has an official licensing deal with OpenAI for its content. The study tested 200 quotes from 20 publications and asked ChatGPT to source them. The results were all over the place.
