An AI assistant is software that reads your question and writes an answer in running text. A large language model does the writing. Its knowledge comes from two places: what the model learned during training, and what the assistant looks up on the web at that moment. Only when it searches live can an AI assistant point to a current page on your website.
How does an AI assistant search?
OpenAI explains in its help page on searching with ChatGPT that ChatGPT can search the web automatically when a question benefits from current information. ChatGPT then rewrites your question into one or more targeted searches for its search partners. Perplexity writes in its crawler documentation that the Perplexity-User bot visits pages when a user asks a question, so the answer can link to the source.
Example
Suppose someone asks an AI assistant “which accountant in Deventer helps freelancers with their VAT returns?”. An assistant that searches live turns that into searches, reads several of the pages it finds and writes an answer with source links. An accountant whose website clearly states who they work for and where they are based gives the assistant useful material.
Common mistake
Treating an AI answer as established fact. OpenAI itself writes that search results and citations can be incomplete, outdated or wrong, and recommends opening the source. See also hallucination.
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