Anthropic recently announced that its chatbot Claude will enable the web search function soon. The launch of this feature marks a major breakthrough in Claude's knowledge acquisition and enhances competitiveness. According to the company's statement on its blog, the web search feature has now been launched on the preview of paid users in the United States and will also be expanded to free users and users in other countries in the future.
The core of the new feature is the Claude3.7Sonnet model, which can obtain information from the network in real time and provide accurate references when answering questions, making it easier for users to verify the source of information. It is worth noting that Claude does not simply provide search results, but integrates information through dialogue to present more relevant answers to users. This means that users can not only obtain information, but also see the source of the data, which enhances trust in answers.
In actual testing, while web searches are not always triggered, once activated, Claude provides cited answers, with citation sources including social media and mainstream news organizations such as NPR and Reuters. This design makes Claude's capabilities comparable to other chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini, and marks a significant improvement in its functionality.
However, the introduction of web search capabilities also presents new challenges, especially about the accuracy and reliability of information. Anthropic once used "self-sufficiency" as Claude's design philosophy, but in the fierce market competition, the adjustment of this strategy shows a positive response to user needs. At the same time, the risk of using network information is that Claude can produce hallucinations or misreferences, and this problem is also present in other chatbots.
Research shows that more than 60% of the answers to a variety of popular chatbots, including ChatGPT and Gemini, are wrong when answering questions. This reminds users that they still need to maintain a certain degree of vigilance when using artificial intelligence assistants to ensure the accuracy of the information they obtain.
Claude's web search function enhances its ability to acquire real-time knowledge, but also puts higher requirements on the quality of information. While enjoying the new features, users also need to be cautious about the authenticity of the information.