Is there any way that the openAI API can read a URL? Basically, if I give it a URL and tell it to respond based on the information on the website, can it do this?
It cannot, and the reason for this is that the API does not have access to web browsing. However, ChatGPT does have web browsing access through GPT-4 if you use it through chat.openai.com, which might be a suitable option for you depending on your use case.