Anthropic announced on Thursday that its Claude chatbot can now search the web, making it one of the last AI chatbots to acquire a web search capability, following competitors such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Search and Perplexity.
This update enhances Claude’s functionality, allowing it to provide answers in a conversational format by delivering relevant sources along with inline citations, enabling users to verify the information. “Instead of finding search results yourself, Claude processes and delivers relevant sources in a conversational format,” said Anthropic in its announcement.
The new web search capability expands Claude’s knowledge base with real-time insights and answers based on current information. This update builds on Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Anthropic’s most advanced model, which has a knowledge cutoff set for November 2024.
Video: Anthropic
While Google retains the lead in web search market share with its traditional interface, the adoption of AI chatbot search functionalities has been steadily increasing.
Currently, the web search feature is available in preview for paid Claude users in the United States, with plans to extend access to free users and other countries in the near future. Users can activate the web search by navigating to settings, toggling the web search option to “on,” and then starting a conversation with Claude 3.7 Sonnet.
Featured image credit: Anthropic
