ChatGPT’s Bing Browsing Feature Disabled for Paywall Article Access

The feature was disabled by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, on July 3rd, and it will remain suspended until the company fixes this issue in order to do right by content owners.

ChatGPT has been involved in several legal battles, and the last thing its creators want is to open another front. The AI chatbot is undoubtfully a gift for internet users in recent times, and gaining the ability to add plugins to the AI-powered chatbot is the cherry on top.

The plugins that helped users connect ChatGPT to the internet were the most sought-after ones. One such plugin was the Browsing model, also known as Browse with Bing, which used the Bing search API to enable internet access.

This Beta feature was available for ChatGPT Plus subscribers and integrated the search engine into the conversation, allowing the user to access information from the web. When it was rolled out, the feature tremendously enhanced ChatGPT’s utility by making it possible to merge the internet and the AI chatbot.

However, this much-talked-about feature has now been disabled by OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, because it allowed users to access paywalled articles. Reportedly, the paywalled content was accessible through the “Print the Content of this Article” prompt by pasting the article’s URL after it. ChatGPT would then display the content of the article. For example, if a user asked for the full text of a specific URL, it fulfilled this request.

One of ChatGPT’s users shared this screenshot on Twitter. (Credit: @wunderwuzzi23)

The company stated that this feature inadvertently displayed content it wasn’t meant to show, violating the terms and services of most subscription-based online publications. Therefore, OpenAI disabled this feature on July 3rd, and it will remain suspended until the company fixes this issue in order to do right by content owners. ChatGPT won’t display information beyond September 2021, its training data cutoff date.

The company asserts that the feature will be back soon. However, until this happens, the unexpected disabling has disappointed ChatGPT users as they are in disbelief that this glitch was detected at the beta stage when it should have been fixed in the Alpha stages. According to reports, users who had paid for the Chat with Bing feature are asking for refunds as the service is not available anymore.

However, OpenAI has confirmed that the feature has been temporarily disabled, and their team is diligently working on reintroducing it after ensuring that it complies with the performance and content accuracy.

Nevertheless, there is confusion as OpenAI hasn’t disclosed when the feature will be available. We will update our readers as soon as there is any new development in this story.

RELATED ARTICLES

1. 100,000 Hacked ChatGPT Accounts Discovered on Dark Web
2. ChatGPT’s False Information Generation Enables Code Malware
3. ChatGPT tricked into generating Windows 10 and Windows 11 keys
4. ChatGPT Improves Healthcare, But Industry Needs Secure Database
5. OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Bug Bounty Program – Earn $200 to $20k

I am a UK-based cybersecurity journalist with a passion for covering the latest happenings in cyber security and tech world. I am also into gaming, reading and investigative journalism