US tech giant OpenAI on Monday launched a ChatGPT tool called "deep research", days after artificial intelligence newcomer DeepSeek made headlines for its high performance.
"This is like a superpower. It can go use the internet, do complex research and reasoning, and give you back a report. It is really good, and can do tasks that would take hours/days and cost hundreds of dollars," OpenAI chief Sam Altman said in a post on X.
What's OpenAI's 'Deep Research' Tool
Deep research in ChatGPT is a new agentic capability that conducts multi-step research on the internet for complex tasks and accomplishes in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours, OpenAI said.
"Deep research is OpenAI's next agent that can do work for you independently-you give it a prompt, and ChatGPT will find, analyze, and synthesize hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst," the company said in a statement.
Powered by a version of the upcoming OpenAI o3 model that's optimized for web browsing and data analysis, the company said the deep research is built for people who do intensive knowledge work in areas like finance, science, policy, and engineering and need thorough, precise, and reliable research.
"It can be equally useful for discerning shoppers looking for hyper-personalized recommendations on purchases that typically require careful research, like cars, appliances, and furniture," the company said.
How To Use 'Deep Research' Tool
To use OpenAI's new tool, select 'deep research' in the message composer in ChatGPT and enter your question.
You can also attach files or spreadsheets to add context to your query. Once it starts running, a sidebar appears with a summary of the steps taken and sources used.
The tool may take anywhere from about 5 to 30 minutes to complete its work and you will get a notification once the research is complete.
OpenAI said that in the next few weeks, they will also add embedded images, data visualisations, and other analytic outputs in these reports for additional clarity.
'Deep Research' Launched Amid DeepSeek Buzz
OpenAI's new tool has been launched amid a buzz over the AI chatbot developed by Chinese start-up DeepSeek, which has sent shockwaves through the industry for its R1 chatbot's supposed low cost and high performance.
Launched last month, DeepSeek-R1 is 20 to 50 times more affordable to use than OpenAI's o1 model, depending on the task, according to a post on DeepSeek's official WeChat account.
DeepSeek's free AI assistant had last week overtaken ChatGPT in downloads from Apple's app store, hitting shares of several big tech players, including Nvidia.
Sam Altman also called its R1 AI model "impressive".
