OpenAI has temporarily disabled the “Browse with Bing” feature in its AI chatbot, ChatGPT, following user reports of paywall bypassing. The feature – introduced to enhance the search experience beyond the limitations of the GPT-4 model – inadvertently allowed users to access premium content without a subscription.

The issue came to light when users in the r/ChatGPT Reddit community shared their ability to use the feature to bypass paywalls. In response, OpenAI suspended the feature on July 3, 2023, to address the misuse and uphold content ownership rights. The company is currently working on modifications to prevent such misuse in the future. The timeline for the reintroduction of the feature remains unclear.

I was only a marginal fan of the “Browse with Bing” plugin; I mostly use the “Link Reader” plugin when my ChatGPT Plus sessions need information from the public internet. That said, access to the web is an essential feature for consumer-facing conversational AI, so I hope they get this fixed quickly.

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