How to use ChatGPT as a personal AI research assistant

ChatGPT continues to get more and more capable as features such as web search and scheduled tasks are added, and the latest new AI tool pushed out by OpenAI is an advanced searching feature called Deep Research--yes, just like the similar tool inside Google Gemini. As you can guess from the name, the tool is designed to do a thorough search on the web for information related to your query, then present a detailed report to your specifications. According to OpenAI, Deep Research "leverages reasoning to search, interpret, and analyze massive amounts of text, images, and PDFs on the internet, pivoting as needed in reaction to information it encounters". Right now, you need to be a paying ChatGPT user to access Deep Research, so you'll have to give OpenAI at least 20 per month to make use of it. To date, there's been no word on if or when the feature will make its way to users on the free ChatGPT tier.