OpenAI announces new ‘deep research’ tool for ChatGPT

TOKYO: US tech giant OpenAI on Monday unveiled a ChatGPT tool called “deep research” that can produce detailed reports, as China’s DeepSeek chatbot heats up competition in the AI field.

The company made the announcement in Tokyo, where OpenAI chief Sam Altman also trumpeted a new joint venture with tech investor SoftBank Group to offer advanced artificial intelligence services to businesses.

Altman and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son will meet the Japanese prime minister later on Monday and will reportedly announce plans to boost Japan’s AI infrastructure. It comes as AI newcomer DeepSeek has sent Silicon Valley into a frenzy, with some calling its high performance and supposed low cost a wake-up call for US developers.

OpenAI, whose ChatGPT led generative AI’s emergence into public consciousness in 2022, said its new tool “accomplishes in tens of minutes what would take a human many hours”.

“You give it a prompt, and ChatGPT will find, analyse, and synthesise hundreds of online sources to create a comprehensive report at the level of a research analyst,” the company said in a statement.

On social media platform X Altman said that deep research, which paid ‘Pro’ ChatGPT users can access 100 times a month, was “slow” and required a lot of computing power.

But he was more bullish on stage at a business forum in Tokyo. “This is a system that I think can do -- this is just an estimate of mine -- but I think can do a single-digit percentage of all economically valuable tasks in the world,” Altman said.

Crystal ball

SoftBank and OpenAI are part of the Stargate drive announced by US President Donald Trump to invest up to $500 billion in artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States.

Similar steps to build AI data centres and power plants in Japan could be announced when Altman and Son meet Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, the Nikkei newspaper said. Ishiba is also expected to visit Washington to meet Trump for the leaders’ first in-person meeting later this week.

At their event for businesses on Monday afternoon, Son announced a new joint venture equally split between the two companies. Holding a purple crystal ball, the Japanese tycoon outlined the services of a new AI product called Cristal, which can crunch firms’ system data, reports, emails and meetings.

A joint statement said SoftBank would “spend $3 billion annually to deploy OpenAI’s solutions across its group companies”. The venture “will serve as a springboard for introducing AI agents tailored to the unique needs of Japanese enterprises while setting a model for global adoption”, it said.

‘New kind of hardware’

Separately, Altman told the Nikkei he wanted to develop “a new kind of hardware” using artificial intelligence in partnership with Apple’s former chief design officer Jony Ive.

But Altman indicated it would take several years to unveil a prototype, the Nikkei said.

Altman also told the newspaper that DeepSeek is “a good model” that highlights the serious competition for AI reasoning technology, but that its “capability level isn’t new”. DeepSeek’s performance has sparked a wave of accusations that it has reverse-engineered the capabilities of leading US technology, such as the AI powering ChatGPT.

OpenAI warned last week that Chinese companies are actively attempting to replicate its advanced AI models, prompting closer cooperation with US authorities. While OpenAI has not confirmed Altman’s next movements, media reports said he was expected to travel on Tuesday to Seoul.

A spokesperson for South Korean IT conglomerate Kakao told AFP that they would on Tuesday announce their “collaboration with OpenAI” but did not confirm whether Altman would be there.