The generative AI platform ChatGPT can now fetch data directly from the internet and gather up-to-date information in real-time, its creator OpenAI said Wednesday, in a major milestone for the software.

Until now, ChatGPT's responses to user queries were based on a vast database, which did not contain information from after August 2021.

"ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources," OpenAI said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. "It is no longer limited to data before September 2021."

It also said that the latest feature would allow sites to control how ChatGPT interacts with them.

OpenAI launched the update for its paying subscribers in June, but suspended it after users managed to bypass paywalls on internet content.

The feature, dubbed "Browse with Bing", is also reserved for paying subscribers of ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise services, but OpenAI said it would soon be available to all users.

OpenAI partner Microsoft already offers Bing Chat, an integration of GPT-4, the language model used to develop ChatGPT, with its internet search engine, as does Google with its conversational robot Bard.

ChatGPT will provide direct sources alongside its responses, which will no longer be based on the single database the program's publisher controls.