As of writing this, ChatGPT is only able to access content it has been trained on up to the September 2021.
What if there was a way to give ChatGPT internet access?
Thanks to an amazing creator out there, we have a way to augment our ChatGPT prompts with relevant results from the web.
Step 1:
Go to the Chrome store and download an extension called “WebChatGPT“.
Step 2:
Once you have downloaded the extension, at the bottom of ChatGPT, you will see a new set of options:
Step 3:
By having the “Web access” turned on, this extension will provide ChatGPT with more recent results and your answers will drastically change.
Experiment:
We will provide ChatGPT with a prompt that shows its knowledge up to 2021. For this example, we will use Alex Murdaugh, the now convicted murderer from South Carolina of his wife and son, as the example.
As of ChatGPT’s current knowledge, it is only aware that Alex Murdaugh is under investigation. The prompt starts with: “What do you know about Alex Murdaugh?”
ChatGPT responds with:
Alex Murdaugh is a prominent South Carolina attorney who gained national attention after several members of his family were murdered. On June 7, 2021, he discovered the bodies of his wife and son, Margaret and Paul Murdaugh, on the family's property in Colleton County, South Carolina. The case is still under investigation, but no arrests have been made. In September 2021, Murdaugh himself was shot in the head while changing a tire on the side of the road. He survived the shooting and initially claimed that he had been the victim of a random attack, but later admitted to hiring a former client to kill him in order to secure a $10 million life insurance policy for his surviving son. He was arrested on charges of insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud in September 2021. Subsequently, Murdaugh was also charged with embezzling millions of dollars from his law firm, where he had worked as a partner. It is alleged that he created false billings and diverted funds to his own personal accounts. Murdaugh has a long history of legal work in South Carolina, having represented prominent clients and served as a volunteer prosecutor in his home county. However, his recent legal troubles have brought him under intense scrutiny and raised questions about his past behavior and actions. The investigations into his various alleged crimes are ongoing.
Now, we’ll ask the same question, but turn on the web access, set the results to 3, timeline to be the past week, and location United States.
ChatGPT’s new response:
As of my knowledge cutoff on September 2021, Alex Murdaugh was a prominent South Carolina attorney who gained national attention after several members of his family were murdered and he was later shot in the head in a case involving alleged insurance fraud and embezzlement [1][2]. However, as of my current date on March 6, 2023, Alex Murdaugh has been found guilty of murdering his wife and son and sentenced to life in prison [1]. Alex Murdaugh was a veteran personal injury attorney and heir to a legal dynasty that has held sway over South Carolina's Lowcountry region for more than a century. [2] Additionally, there has been renewed scrutiny on the death of Murdaugh family housekeeper Gloria Satterfield, who sustained a fatal head injury in an alleged trip and fall accident at the family's home in 2018, which Alex Murdaugh had been involved in settling the wrongful death lawsuit [3].
As you can see, this is a pretty powerful tool to add to ChatGPT. Happy prompting!
