You can now ask ChatGPT for gift ideas and actually buy the stuff

Here’s how it works: if you type something like “best noise-cancelling headphones under $200” or “gift ideas for someone who loves cooking,” ChatGPT will now be able to show you actual products. You will get curated recommendations, images, reviews and links to purchase those items online.To start, this feature will focus on categories like electronics, home goods, fashion and beauty. The goal is to make your product searches more personalized and way less frustrating than traditional search engines.

This move is clearly OpenAI’s shot at Google, especially since product search and shopping ads have been a massive part of Google’s business for years. But unlike Google Search, which is stuffed with ads and sponsored results, OpenAI says ChatGPT’s shopping tool won’t be ad-driven. The results come from structured data like pricing, product details and reviews, and OpenAI isn’t getting any commission from what you buy.

Also, similar to Google’s autocomplete feature, ChatGPT will now show trending searches when you start typing, giving you ideas or helping you finish your question faster.

All in all, this update is a big step for OpenAI and a sign that AI is becoming a bigger part of how we search, shop and get things done online. Speaking of which, OpenAI’s Deep Research tool, which was previously limited to a smaller user base, is now expanding and even reaching users of the free ChatGPT app on both iOS and Android.