OpenAI announces new ‘deep research’ tool for ChatGPT
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AI newcomer DeepSeek has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with its supposed low cost and high performance prompting calls for US developers to go faster.
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TOKYO – US tech giant OpenAI on Feb 3 unveiled a ChatGPT tool called “deep research” that can produce detailed reports, as China’s DeepSeek chatbot heats up competition in the artificial intelligence (AI) field.
The company made the announcement in Tokyo, where OpenAI chief Sam Altman also trumpeted a new joint venture with tech investor SoftBank Group to offer advanced AI services to businesses.
It comes as AI newcomer DeepSeek
OpenAI, whose ChatGPT fronted generative AI’s emergence into public consciousness in 2022, said its new tool “accomplishes in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours”.
The company said in a statement: “You give it a prompt, and ChatGPT will find, analyse, and synthesise hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst.”
On social media platform X, Mr Altman said deep research – which paid “Pro” ChatGPT users can access 100 times a month – was “slow” and required a lot of computing power.
But he was more bullish on stage at a business forum in Tokyo.
“This is a system that I think can do – this is just an estimate of mine – but I think can do a single-digit percentage of all economically valuable tasks in the world,” Mr Altman said.
SoftBank and OpenAI are part of the Stargate drive
Similar steps to build AI data centres and power plants in Japan could be announced when Mr Altman and SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the Nikkei newspaper said.
Mr Ishiba is expected to visit Washington to meet Mr Trump for the leaders’ first in-person meeting later this week.
At their event for businesses on the afternoon of Feb 3, Mr Son announced a new joint venture equally split between the two companies.
Holding a purple crystal ball, the Japanese tycoon outlined the services of a new AI product called Cristal, which can crunch firms’ system data, reports, e-mails and meetings.
A joint statement said SoftBank would “spend US$3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies”.
The venture “will serve as a springboard for introducing AI agents tailored to the unique needs of Japanese enterprises while setting a model for global adoption”, it said.
‘New kind of hardware’
Separately, Mr Altman told the Nikkei that he wanted to develop “a new kind of hardware” using AI in partnership with Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive.
But Mr Altman indicated it would take several years to unveil a prototype, the Nikkei said.
He also told the newspaper that DeepSeek is “a good model” that highlights the serious competition for AI reasoning technology, but that its “capability level isn’t new”.
DeepSeek’s performance has sparked a wave of accusations that it has reverse-engineered the capabilities of leading US technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT.
OpenAI warned last week that Chinese companies are actively attempting to replicate its advanced AI models, prompting closer cooperation with US authorities.
While OpenAI has not confirmed Mr Altman’s next movements, media reports said he was expected to travel on Feb 4 to Seoul.
A spokesperson for South Korean IT conglomerate Kakao told AFP that they would on Feb 4 announce their “collaboration with OpenAI” but did not confirm whether Mr Altman would be there. AFP
