OpenAI is enhancing its AI-powered “deep research” feature with the ability to analyze codebases on GitHub.
On Thursday, OpenAI announced what it’s calling the first “connector” for ChatGPT deep research, the company’s tool that searches across the web and other sources to compile thorough research reports on a topic. Now, ChatGPT deep research can link to GitHub (in beta), allowing developers to ask questions about a codebase and engineering documents.
The connector will be available for ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Team users over the next few days, with Enterprise and Edu support coming soon, according to an OpenAI spokesperson.
The GitHub connector for ChatGPT deep research arrives as AI companies look to make their AI-powered chatbots more useful by building ways to link them to outside platforms and services. Anthropic, for example, recently debuted Integrations, which gives apps a pipeline into its AI chatbot Claude.
OpenAI years ago offered a plug-in capability for ChatGPT, but deprecated it in favor of custom chatbots called GPTs.
“I often hear that users find ChatGPT’s deep research agent so valuable that they want it to connect to their internal sources, in addition to the web,” OpenAI Head of Business Products Nate Gonzalez wrote in a blog post on LinkedIn. “[That’s why] today we’re introducing our first connector.”
In addition to answering questions about codebases, the new ChatGPT deep research GitHub connector lets ChatGPT users break down product specs into technical tasks and dependencies, summarize code structure and patterns, and understand how to implement new APIs using real code examples.
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There’s a risk that ChatGPT deep research hallucinates, of course — no AI model in existence doesn’t confidently make things up sometimes. But OpenAI is pitching the new capability as a potential time saver, not a replacement for experts.
An OpenAI spokesperson said ChatGPT will respect an organization’s settings so users only see GitHub content they’re already allowed to view and codebases that’ve been explicitly shared with ChatGPT.
OpenAI has been investing in its tooling for assistive coding, recently unveiling an open source coding tool for terminals called Codex CLI and upgrading the ChatGPT desktop app to read code in a handful of developer-focused coding apps. The company sees programming as a top use case for its models. Case in point, OpenAI has reportedly reached an agreement to buy AI-powered coding assistant Windsurf for $3 billion.
In other OpenAI news on Thursday, the company launched fine-tuning options for developers looking to customize its newer models for particular applications. Devs can now fine-tune OpenAI’s o4-mini “reasoning” model via a technique OpenAI calls reinforcement fine-tuning, which uses task-specific grading to improve the model’s performance. Fine-tuning has also rolled out for the company’s GPT-4.1 nano model.
Only verified organizations can fine-tune o4-mini, according to OpenAI. GPT-4.1 nano fine-tuning, meanwhile, is available for all paying developers.
OpenAI began gating certain models and developer features behind verification, which requires organizations to submit an ID and other identity documents, in April. The company claims that it’s necessary to prevent abuse.
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OpenAI is introducing a new data residency program in Asia, the company announced Thursday, following the rollout of its data residency program in Europe in February.
The new program, which is available for OpenAI’s ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, and the OpenAI API, aims to help Asia-based organizations meet local data sovereignty requirements while using the AI company’s products. Eligible API customers and new ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu subscribers can choose to have their data stored at rest in supported countries: Japan, India, Singapore, and South Korea.
“For the API platform and ChatGPT business products, data remains confidential, secure, and entirely owned by you,” wrote OpenAI in a blog post. “Data residency further enhances data control for organizations.”
The debut of the Asia data residency program comes as OpenAI looks to accelerate its expansion abroad. This week, the company announced OpenAI for Countries, an initiative OpenAI says will enable it to build out the infrastructure needed to better serve international clientele.
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Instacart CEO Fidji Simo is joining OpenAI as CEO of Applications, the ChatGPT maker said on Thursday. Simo, already a board member at OpenAI, will transition out of Instacart over the next few months and join the AI company full-time later this year.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he would continue in his role, overseeing verticals like research, compute and applications. Simo will directly report to Altman.
“Applications brings together a group of existing business and operational teams responsible for how our research reaches and benefits the world, and Fidji is uniquely qualified to lead this group. Serving as an OpenAI board member over the past year, Fidji has already contributed a great deal to our company. She will transition from her role at Instacart over the next few months and join OpenAI later this year,” Altman wrote in a blog post.
Simo will also help OpenAI in scaling “traditional” company functions, Altman said, but he didn’t provide further details.
Simo has years of experience in product management and monetization. Before joining Instacart in 2021, she spent more than a decade at Meta, leading the launch of ads on the News Feed; heading monetization for the Facebook app, overseeing product development for Facebook Video; and helping build its advertising business. She exited Meta as head of the Facebook app. After joining Instacart, she helped take the company public in 2023.
In a post on X, Simo said she would stay on as chair of the Instacart board. In a letter to Instacart employees, she said a current member of the company’s management would replace her as CEO, and an announcement would be made soon.
“Joining OpenAI at this critical moment is an incredible privilege and responsibility. This organization has the potential of accelerating human potential at a pace never seen before and I am deeply committed to shaping these applications toward the public good,” she said in a statement.
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OpenAI has met with officials from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to discuss the agency’s use of AI to speed up drug evaluations, Wired reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, OpenAI and the FDA have discussed a project called cderGPT, which seems to be an AI tool for the Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE). The CDE regulates over-the-counter and prescription drugs in the U.S. Associates from Elon Musk’s DOGE have reportedly been part of the talks as well.
It’s not uncommon for drug development processes to take more than a decade to complete. OpenAI’s work with the FDA aims to accelerate a small portion of that timeline, toward the end, per Wired. AI has long been touted as a potential accelerant that could be used throughout drug development, making some notoriously slow steps more efficient. That said, there are unanswered questions around how to control for the unreliability of AI models.
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OpenAI is launching a program, OpenAI for Countries, that the company says will enable it to build out the local infrastructure needed to better serve international AI customers.
As a part of the new program, OpenAI will partner with governments to assist with efforts like building out data center capacity and customizing OpenAI’s products, including ChatGPT, for specific languages and local needs.
Funding for the program will come from OpenAI as well as from governments in each country, according to the startup. The goal is to pursue 10 international projects to start, but OpenAI hasn’t said where they’ll be located yet.
OpenAI said that it hopes to “spread democratic AI.” That essentially means it wants to convince other countries to use Western AI models — OpenAI in particular — instead of Chinese competitors.
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI for Countries is meant to complement the company’s AI data center push, Project Stargate, which is reportedly set to expand beyond the U.S. OpenAI for Countries may lean on Stargate infrastructure, for example, or perhaps even funding from Stargate investors.
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