An AI’s knowledge, relevance, and reliability depend, among other things, on how often it is trained and learns new information. For example, ChatGPT 5 hasn’t acquired any new knowledge since 30 September 2024, and ChatGPT-4o hasn’t learned anything new since 1 October 2023..
When we request information after this date, we rely on ChatGPT’s ability to search the internet. This happens in real time and compensates to some extent for the lack of updates.
However, your AI does not always automatically browse for current information, nor is the information it retrieves necessarily relevant.
If your AI does not have a browsing function, you should be particularly mindful of whether the information it provides is outdated.
Apparently, Biden Is Still President
In the following example, I asked ChatGPT-5 to list the five most recent US presidents. It did so - but rather surprisingly, Joe Biden was still the President of the United States in February 2025:
Only after I challenged the result did it use its search function and, via the White House website, determine that Donald Trump was, in fact, the sitting president. It then politely apologised for the "confusion."
ChatGPT Is Not Google
Strictly speaking, ChatGPT isn’t wrong — it simply hasn’t learned anything new since 30 September 2024, and therefore doesn’t know that there was a presidential election in November, that Trump won, and that he was inaugurated in January 2025.
The problem arises when your AI relies on its outdated knowledge to answer current questions instead of automatically searching the web.
This is why you should not use ChatGPT and other chatbots in the same way you use Google. They are, first and foremost, chatbots, not search engines - even if some of them have internet search capabilities.
What You Can Do
Here are three things you can do when your AI’s knowledge is not up to date:
- Use a robust AI model that is knowledgeable about your subject area, has been recently updated, and can search the internet.
- Cross-check responses that are based solely on the AI’s training data - especially if you are not familiar with the topic.
- Explicitly ask your AI to search the internet when you need up-to-date information, if it does not do so automatically. Also, request source links if they are not provided, so you can verify the information yourself and assess its relevance, reliability and alternative perspectives on the topic.
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