"OpenAI's 'Deep Research' Agent: A Superpower for Professionals"

OpenAI Responds to DeepSeek Hype with ‘Deep Research’ ChatGPT Agent

In a move to stay ahead in the rapidly evolving AI landscape, OpenAI has launched 'Deep Research', a new AI-powered agent within ChatGPT that conducts independent, in-depth web research, analyzes data, and compiles reports. This tool is designed for professionals in finance, science, policy, and engineering, as well as anyone seeking thorough, precise, and reliable research.

The 'Deep Research' agent is now available for Pro users, allowing them to input a query and attach relevant files or spreadsheets for additional context. The AI then analyzes hundreds of sources over five to 30 minutes, displaying a sidebar tracking its research process before delivering a fully cited report.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hyped the tool on Twitter, calling it "like a superpower; experts on demand!" He shared a personal use case where Deep Research helped him find a rare NSX car in Japan after he had nearly given up searching manually.

Despite its advanced capabilities, Deep Research isn't without its quirks. OpenAI acknowledges that the model can sometimes hallucinate facts or make incorrect inferences and struggles with differentiating authoritative sources from misinformation.

Currently, Pro users can access 100 queries per month, with Plus and Team users expected to get access next, followed by Enterprise customers. OpenAI is reportedly working on a faster, more cost-effective version to increase query limits for paid users.

To bolster its case, OpenAI pointed to Deep Research's performance on Humanity's Last Exam, an AI benchmark testing expert-level knowledge across 100+ fields. Deep Research's o3 model scored 26.6% accuracy, far surpassing DeepSeek-R-1's 9.4% and even OpenAI's GPT-4o, which managed only 3.3%.

The timing of OpenAI's launch is no coincidence, as Google had previously announced its own "Deep Research" feature for its Gemini AI model for Gemini Advanced users. The AI giants are now locked in a battle to define the future of AI-driven, autonomous knowledge discovery.