OpenAI has been making headlines since the end of last year, mainly due to the huge popularity of its main service, ChatGPT. This AI powered chatbot has taken the world by storm and has proven to be a useful tool for many people. The company has been on a flurry of announcements, recently revealing its GPT-4 model, and now introducing ChatGPT plugins. In this article, we’ll explain what ChatGPT plugins are, what they can do for you, and what plugins are now available.
What are ChatGPT extensions?
One limitation of ChatGPT is that it can respond to a user’s query based only on the training data it has, which is limited to 2021. This means that ChatGPT is not aware of the most recent events or even those that occurred in the past year. Basically plugins will allow ChatGPT to access the online world and retrieve information from it.
Think of plugins as implementations of ChatGPT
Plug-ins will allow the service to interact with live data from the web and specific websites. Think of plugins as implementations of ChatGPT. With these plugins, the AI chatbot will be able to perform a number of tasks that it has been unable to do so far. OpenAI says the plug-ins are like ChatGPT’s “eyes and ears” and have the ability to turn a chatbot into a versatile interface for a variety of services and websites.
With plugins, ChatGPT will be able to call APIs of compatible third party services to perform actions. In one post, the company wrote “For example, if a user asks ‘Where should I stay in Paris for a few nights? ’, the model may choose to call the additional Hotel Reservation API, receive the API response, and generate a user-facing response that combines the API’s data with its natural language capabilities.”
ChatGPT will support plug-ins developed by third-party developers and OpenAI itself. While announcing plugin support, OpenAI showed 11 plugins developed by third-party services, such as Slack, Zapier, Expedia, and Instacart, as well as two plugins (web browser and transcoder) developed by the company itself.
A demo video shared by OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman shows that users will be able to install plugins directly from the ChatGPT home screen. After installing the necessary plugin, users will be able to ask the service to perform complex tasks, such as asking ChatGPT for restaurant recommendations from OpenTable or asking them to place an order on Instacart (which is currently beyond its scope).
Plugins also appear to be interoperable, which means that the output of a plugin can be used as the input for another plugin. For example, users could, in a single ChatGPT prompt, ask the service to use the Expedia plug-in to book flights and hotels, and then use the KAYAK plug-in to book a rental car. This will provide a very good user experience when completing complex workflows.
However, the most promising plug-ins are those developed by OpenAI. These include the web browser plug-in and the transcoder plug-in.
The browser plug-in allows ChatGPT to access the Internet, which extends its knowledge base beyond training data. In an example, OpenAI asked the service about the 2023 Oscar winners. Using the plug-in, ChatGPT was able to browse the Internet, retrieve relevant information, and provide an accurate response. The bot also shows what it’s looking for before providing a response. This is something that ChatGPT has not been able to achieve before.
The code interpreter plugin uses Python and performs logical calculations based on the problems presented to it. With this plugin, ChatGPT can execute code snippets in Python and provide output. OpenAI says the code is evaluated in a continuous session and is active for the duration of the conversation. The plugin also allows users to upload files to the existing chat workspace and download the results of their work. However, both the browser and the code compiler plugin are in alpha stage now.
ChatGPT add-ons: version and availability
ChatGPT plugins are currently in “alpha” stage and only available to a small number of users. Interested users can sign up for the company’s waiting list, though the company will prioritize giving access to a small number of developers and ChatGPT Plus users first. However, OpenAI plans to widely deploy access to plug-ins in the future.
“We are developing plugins and bringing them to a wider audience,” the company wrote in a blog post. “We have a lot to learn, and with everyone’s help, we hope to build something useful and safe.”
The implementation of plug-ins is a major milestone for OpenAI, which greatly improves ChatGPT’s capabilities. I would even compare it to the App Store version for the iPhone, which, as we know, had an amazing effect. As development continues, we can expect ChatGPT to become an even more valuable tool.