It is said that ChatGPT is the "iPhone moment" of AI, and now its "app store" has arrived.
OpenAI has just released a bombshell announcement -
They announced the launch of plugin functionality, giving ChatGPT the ability to use tools, connect to the internet, and perform computations.
For example, in the official demonstration, once ChatGPT is connected to the Wolfram Alpha mathematical knowledge engine, there is no longer any need to worry about inaccurate numerical calculations.
Furthermore, OpenAI has also released two of its own plugins: a web browser and a code interpreter.
Previously, due to the lack of internet connectivity, users could only access information up until September 2021; but now, they can not only directly retrieve the latest news, but also solve mathematical calculations!
(No more worrying about ChatGPT talking nonsense!)
Additionally, it also supports individuals or businesses to feed private data (documents, notes, emails, etc.) to ChatGPT, making it their "second brain" or intelligent assistant.
The fleeting three-page list of third-party plugins includes:
- Allowing ChatGPT to query vocabulary and phrase meanings in various languages
- Allowing ChatGPT to query flight and hotel information, helping you plan your travels
- Allowing ChatGPT to access major e-commerce data, helping you compare prices and even place orders directly
- Allowing ChatGPT to integrate with the automation platform Zapier, connecting with almost all office software and creating your own personalized intelligent workflows
...
And this is just the beginning, as the permissions and methods for creating plugins will also be opened to developers.
A senior programmer exclaimed:
"I have developed plugin systems for many software, and the ChatGPT plugin interface may be the craziest and most impressive I have ever seen in my life."
Andrej Karpathy, the former AI director of Tesla who recently returned to OpenAI, said:
GPT-like models are a new type of computer architecture that operates on text. They can not only converse with us humans but also "converse" with existing software infrastructure. APIs are the first step, and plugins are the second step.
ChatGPT now has eyes and ears
According to the official introduction, this plugin functionality is primarily designed as a language model design tool with security as its core principle.
(In other words, it won't be available for use so quickly.)
OpenAI is currently asking users to join a waiting list.
However, they also mentioned that although it is currently in the Alpha stage and prioritizing a few developers and ChatGPT Plus users, they guarantee:
A larger-scale opening is only a matter of time.
Based on the "preliminary functions" that have been implemented so far, ChatGPT already has three capabilities:
- Accessing the latest information, such as sports scores, stock prices, and breaking news
- Retrieving knowledge base information, such as company documents, personal notes, and performing calculations
- Performing actions on behalf of users, such as booking flights and making reservations
The currently supported third-party plugins include restaurant recommendations, travel planning, shopping, AI language teachers, online stores, as well as academic knowledge applications like Wolfram and application libraries (interacting with over 5000 applications, including Google Sheets)...
In this way, it seems to cover almost every aspect of our lives, including clothing, food, housing, transportation, work, and learning.
In addition, OpenAI also has two of its own plugins: a web browser and a code interpreter, and has open-sourced the code for a knowledge base retrieval plugin.
As mentioned earlier, OpenAI emphasizes security principles this time and has implemented multiple safeguards, each tailored to specific functionalities.
- Third-party plugins
Firstly, regarding third-party plugins, any developer can participate in building them. OpenAI even provides a complete set of building processes: "How to build your plugin on ChatGPT," which has been open-sourced on GitHub.
On the ChatGPT interface, users can select and download plugins themselves.
They can then use them in the chat interface.
- Internet connectivity
Can you tell me which person or movie won these categories of Oscars?
As a result, in the chat interface, ChatGPT displays additional "browsing" results and directly provides the latest results for 2023.
The security measures implemented by OpenAI include: limiting the scope of using this plugin to information retrieval only, excluding "transactional operations" such as form submissions; using the Bing search API, which inherits Microsoft's reliability and authenticity in information sources; running on independent servers; displaying sources, and more.
- Code interpreter: It allows the use of Python to process uploaded and downloaded experimental ChatGPT models.
In simple terms, it provides a Python interpreter that works in a sandbox and firewall execution environment, as well as some temporary disk space.
The code executed by the interpreter plugin is evaluated in a persistent session, and subsequent calls can be built upon each other. Currently, this feature supports uploading files to the current session workspace and downloading the results of the work.
However, OpenAI states that this code interpreter mainly provides some basic functions of a computer, offering a smoother interface for novice programmers and enthusiasts.
The recommended functionalities currently include:
- Solving quantitative and qualitative mathematical problems
- Performing data analysis and visualization
- Converting files between formats
One More Thing
Regarding the new plugin functionality of ChatGPT, some developers have expressed that it basically provides an Apple App Store-like service.
However, some people have raised the question of the lack of a profit model for developers at the moment.
Critics argue that OpenAI has just killed a startup called LangChain, which provided a Python framework for quickly building applications using language model APIs and had just raised $10 million in seed funding.
Do you think OpenAI will become the Apple of the AI era? And who will be the Android of the AI era?
Reference links:
[1]https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins
[2]https://platform.openai.com/docs/plugins/introduction
Translated from: https://www.qbitai.com/2023/03/43086.html