AI-Assisted Search-Based Research: Finally Useful!

For two and a half years, the dream of LLMs autonomously conducting search-based research has been pursued. Early 2023 saw attempts from Perplexity and Microsoft Bing, but results were disappointing, plagued by hallucinations. However, the first half of 2025 brought a turning point. Gemini, OpenAI, and Perplexity launched "Deep Research" features, generating lengthy reports with numerous citations, albeit slowly. OpenAI's new o3 and o4-mini models are a breakthrough, seamlessly integrating search into their reasoning process to provide reliable, hallucination-free answers in real-time. This is attributed to robust reasoning models and resilience to web spam. While Google Gemini and Anthropic Claude offer search capabilities, they lag behind OpenAI's offerings. A stunning example: o4-mini successfully upgraded a code snippet to a new Google library, showcasing the potential of AI-assisted search, but also raising concerns about the future of the web's economic model and potential legal ramifications.