ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI chatbot, is shaking up the world of chatbots by taking an App Store-inspired approach and opening up a universe of possibilities for developers and users.
Image generated by Midjourney by Frandroid
Not a week goes by that we don’t hear about advances in the field of dialog agents and, more generally, artificial intelligence. A week after the arrival of GPT-4 (in ChatGPT), OpenAI announces new third-party plugins for ChatGPT. What could only be considered a minor novelty is actually a significant and promising development in the field.
These plugins provide access to third-party knowledge sources, tools and databases, including the Internet. OpenAI is available in alpha for ChatGPT waitlisted users and developers and plans to prioritize a small number of ChatGPT Plus developers and subscribers before rolling out broader access.
Source: Open AI
The most intriguing plugin is undoubtedly OpenAI’s web browser plugin, which allows ChatGPT to pull data from the web to answer various questions put to it.
A ChatGPT limitation overcome thanks to a plugin
Without this plugin, knowledge of ChatGPT is limited to information prior to around September 2021. This plugin pulls content from the web using the Bing Search API and displays the websites it has visited to compose a response, citing its sources in ChatGPT responses. This is comparable to the experience that one can have with Microsoft’s Bing (based on GPT-4) but also with the future Google Bard.
A chatbot with access to the Internet carries risks. This can result in the chatbot using unreliable sources. Meta’s BlenderBot 3.0, which has since been discontinued, also had web access and quickly went astray (it had criticized its creator, Mark Zuckerberg). Among other things, conspiracy theories and offensive content were used.
This is because the live web is less organized than a static data set and therefore less filtered. Search engines like Google and Bing use their own security mechanisms to reduce the likelihood of unreliable content appearing at the top of results, but these results can be tampered with.
On the other hand, search engines have a lot of power over the data that feeds the language models associated with the Internet. Google was caught prioritizing its own services in its searches, for example responding to a travel request with data from Google Places rather than an external source.
It is likely that a specific set of rules will need to be established for plugin developers, imposing certain restrictions and limits on them in order to ensure the security and quality of the plugins offered on the ChatGPT platform.
An approach inspired by the App Store
OpenAI encourages developers to consult its documentation and API to design plugins for ChatGPT. Several partners such as Expedia, Instacart, Kayak, OpenTable and Zapier have already created their own plugins.
By using the Expedia plugin, users can design an itinerary via chat with ChatGPT based on the travel dates provided by Expedia. This includes real-time availability and prices for flights, hotels, vacation rentals, activities and rental cars.
With our new AI plugin, a traveler can start a conversation #ChatGPT to plan their next trip – complete with access to up-to-date information on availability and prices of flights, hotels, vacation rentals, activities and car rentals around the world. https://t.co/cVgLL6qln9 pic.twitter.com/YAIaj9zrEd
—Expedia Group (@ExpediaGroup) March 23, 2023
This move is reminiscent of Apple’s App Store when it launched on the iPhone, as it changed the way apps were developed and distributed. By allowing third-party developers to create and host their own applications on its platform, Apple has revolutionized the mobile industry by making it easier for users to access a variety of applications.
We use plug-ins like applications
Similarly, by offering plugins for ChatGPT, OpenAI creates an ecosystem where developers can design and share their own extensions, improving user experience and opening new possibilities for AI-powered chatbots.
Would you like to join a community of enthusiasts? Our Discord welcomes you, it’s a place of mutual support and passion for technology.