Or you could say that ChatGPT has made more of them available to people who don't have the resources for, say, hiring a personal researcher.

Have you tried to get ChatGPT to answer questions about factual topics at a level of junior grad student/hobbyist independent researcher?

It will generally tell you those things which are known to someone who has neither done detailed research, nor gained specific insights into that topic. (Together with made-up stuff.)