OpenAI leads the general AI space, but AI companies are developing deep research tools and experimenting with AI-powered academic searching in support of research. Perhaps you have faculty or students asking you to present these tools to classes.
Note: Any discussion about AI geared towards librarians should start with a look at the ethical, legal, institutional and strategic concerns many librarians have about AI. Talk to your colleagues / librarian about your concerns to make informed decisions.
Remember: This entry is intended to help librarians and other information professionals learn about AI. It is not, in itself, meant to be seen as promotion of AI. If anything, the goal is harms mitigation or harms reduction.
In August 2025,OpenAI released ChatGPT-5 following GPT-4 which had its problems according to users. ChatGPT uses generative pre-trained transformers (GPTs) to generate text, speech, and images in response to prompts. The tool has had a major role in accelerating AI adoption, and in investment and public attention in artificial intelligence (AI).
ChatGPT by OpenAI is the fastest-growing software application in history, with over 100 million users. As of August 2025, the ChatGPT website is among the most-visited websites globally. OpenAI is a tech giant creating a range of tools and products, including ChatGPT, which people around the world send 2.5 billion requests to each day. Its original mission is to serve as a research lab that will not only create “artificial general intelligence” but ensure that it benefits all of humanity.
The chatbot's so-called capabilities include answering follow-up questions, writing and debugging computer programs, translating, and summarizing text. Users interact with ChatGPT through text, audio, and image prompts. Since its launch, OpenAI has introduced new features, plugins, web browsing capabilities and image generation. It has created extensive media hype and public debate about the future of knowledge work. See alsoCopyright in Canada.
Chat GPT Is Eating the World (blog)
For a comprehensive, ongoing view of ChatGPT, seeChat GPT Is Eating the World. The site (a niche resource for monitoring the "AI vs. copyright" battle) is a specialized news and analysis blog dedicated to the legal challenges surrounding artificial intelligence, with a primary emphasis on copyright issues related to technologies like ChatGPT, OpenAI, DALL-E, and similar AI tools. It explores the intersection of AI innovation and law, particularly how AI training data infringes on copyrights, fair use doctrines, authorship rights, and ethical implications of AI-generated content; Comprehensive tracking of copyright lawsuits against AI companies (e.g., a "Master List of Lawsuits v. AI" with 74 global cases and 51 in the US as of late 2025).
Model: GPT-3.5 and GPT-4
ChatGPT was launched as a conversational AI agent based on the GPT-3.5 series, and fine-tuned for dialogue using reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). It offered text-based responses, excelling in general knowledge, writing, and basic reasoning but was limited to text inputs and a 4,000-token context window (roughly 3,000–4,000 words). Known for fast responses but less nuanced than later models.
Availability: Free to all users, with no message limits initially.
Use Cases: General Q&A, writing assistance, basic code generation.
ChatGPT-4 is a more advanced tool than ChatGPT-3.5, offering more features such as greater accuracy, creativity, nuanced understanding, and safety training. GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 use a transformer-based architecture as part of a neural network that handles sequential data.
Model: GPT-5 (released 7 August 2025
GPT-5 <https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-5/> is OpenAI's advanced reasoning model released in August 2025. GPT-5 is available on the free version of the ChatGPT app, giving access for consumers for health-related queries, potentially increasing its impact on patient education.
OpenAI reports that GPT-5 apparently excels in healthcare-related topics due to several key advancements: 1) enhanced reasoning and factuality; 2) expert-level answers with improved factuality, especially for open-ended health-related questions. OpenAI has reduced "hallucinations" (inaccurate outputs), making it more reliable. It performed better than GPT-4, GPT-4o, and GPT-3 on an evaluation framework developed with 250 physicians from 60 countries, assessing safety, accuracy, and appropriateness.
Healthcare applications: GPT-5 is designed to assist users with tasks like understanding test results, making treatment decisions, and formulating questions for doctors.
For example, a cancer patient at OpenAI’s Summer Update conference used GPT-5 to navigate a complex case, receiving faster, more nuanced explanations of biopsy results and treatment options compared to GPT-4.
What is ChatGPT’s Deep Research? ChatGPT Agentic AI?
"...generative AI tools (e.g. ChatGPT) source data from publicly available internet content... which raises legitimate concerns about ...integrity of AI in writing medical manuscripts [re:] plagiarism, fabricated or false information (hallucinations) and fabricated references..."— Cheng et al, 2025.
ChatGPT’s Deep Research, introduced by OpenAI in February 2025, is an AI-powered feature designed for complex, multi-step research tasks. Unlike standard ChatGPT responses, which are quick and based on its training data or limited web queries, Deep Research operates as an autonomous research agent. It uses a specialized version of OpenAI’s upcoming o3 model, optimized for web browsing and data analysis, to scour hundreds of online sources (text, images, PDFs) and produce detailed, cited reports in 5–30 minutes. It’s marketed as a tool that can rival a human research analyst, targeting professionals in fields like finance, science, policy, and academia, as well as consumers tackling complex decisions (e.g., choosing a laptop or researching market trends).
In July 2025, OpenAI released "ChatGPT agent", an AI agent performs multistep tasks - and, is available to users on the Pro, Plus, and Team plans, and later via Enterprise and Education plans. seehttps://openai.com/index/introducing-chatgpt-agent/
Librarian criticism
"...The idea that we should outsource academic authorship to LLMs rests on the assumption that writing is (only) a mechanical, predictable or reductive process which, with the right prompts, can be replicated with ease." — Masters, 2025.
ChatGPT, in fact most generative AI, has been roundly criticized for its limitations and potential for unethical uses, particularly its inability to write intelligible prose and to "halluciate" references. In some cases, ChatGPT generates plausible, human-sounding text but users are advised to check any answers received from chatbots. Incorrect or nonsensical answers known as hallucinations are common. In August 2025, with the release of GPT-5, the early testing revealed fewer hallucinations and fewer poor responses to questions, but they are still present.
Faculty, staff and students at universites are advised to check with their academic librarian to locate bona fide verified sources to support their studies and research. Additionally, systemic biases in its training data are often reflected (or used as propaganda) in its responses, which will require double and triple checking facts in library-based information sources. Within academic circles, ChatGPT has caused a range of problems such as academic dishonesty, generating misinformation, and creating malicious code against various actors within and without. Using copyrighted content to train its models has also drawn criticism and ire from academics and librarians. These issues have led to its use being restricted in some library workplaces and educational institutions and prompted widespread calls for closer regulation of all AI.
In sum, users of ChatGPT (any version), especially those drawing on open source tools developed at OpenAI, are advised to make friends with their librarian. If you do not have access to a librarian, you will want to use your best judgment and critical skills in evaluating information. You can also try to check any facts or statements derived by chatbot using your public library, or Wikipedia and other open sources.
Note: Please use your critical reading skills while reading entries. No warranties, implied or actual, are granted for any health or medical search or AI information obtained while using these pages. Check with your librarian for more contextual, accurate information.
