This resolves as NO if by the end of 2024 there is no evidence of a search engine feature in ChatGPT. NO would expect an absence of evidence including any mention by @Sama, official Twitter announcements, blog posts, FAQs in Help content, a search feature in ChatGPT itself, partnerships with publishers for real-time information, or any other confirmation that would dispel the rumors of a search engine.

This resolves to YES if there is an official announcement, ChatGPT no longer relying primarily on Bing for results (60% or more searches using non-Bing), product features, partnerships, or other demonstrative materials indicating that ChatGPT sources real-time information for answering questions.

Search engine definition: A search engine is a software system designed to search for information on the World Wide Web by processing user queries and returning relevant results from its database or index of web pages.

As of May 2024, ChatGPT uses a browser tool with Bing to index potential websites. A key limitation is Bing’s unreliability in providing accurate answers about news events within the last 24 hours.

A simple test: Ask ChatGPT about a recent headline from the past 4 hours covered by major news outlets—for example, the death of the Iranian president, Scarlett Johansson’s lawsuit, Rabbit R1 fraud, signs of GPT-5 as AGI, or Tesla Optimus being sold exclusively in Texas.