OpenAI, one of the leading artificial intelligence research companies, has just announced the launch of a new plugin support for its popular AI chatbot, ChatGPT. This new plugin support will allow ChatGPT to access live data for the first time, browsing the internet for relevant information, interact with specific websites, and even perform actions on them based on instructive prompts, making it even more powerful and capable of providing accurate and up-to-date responses to users.
ChatGPT is a state-of-the-art AI chatbot that uses the latest natural language processing (NLP) techniques to generate human-like responses to user input. It has already gained a wide following due to its ability to engage in meaningful conversations with users, providing them with helpful information and support.
However, until now, ChatGPT only had access to the training model it had been fed, which was limited to information up to 2021 to generate responses to user queries. While this was effective in many cases, it often fell short when users asked questions that were not covered by the data set. With the new plugin support, however, ChatGPT can now access real-time data from a variety of sources, including databases, APIs, and other systems.
OpenAI in a blog post announced that it will be gradually rolling out plugins in ChatGPT, allowing the chatbot to interact with third-party websites and sources on the internet. The first set of plugins released to select users for testing include ones created by Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier.
The advantages of this new feature are numerous. With access to live data, ChatGPT can provide users with up-to-date information on a variety of topics, ranging from news and weather to stock prices and sports scores. The chatbot can also use this data to provide more personalized responses to users, tailoring its answers to their specific needs and interests.
This is a major development in the world of AI-powered chatbots, as it means that ChatGPT will be able to provide more accurate and relevant responses to users. For businesses, this could mean improved customer service and engagement, while for individuals, it could mean having a more personalized and helpful chatbot assistant.
Additionally, ChatGPT has also released two plugins of its own that include a web browser, and a code interpreter. The web browser plugin, most importantly, is one that changes the potential of the chatbot drastically.
Meanwhile, the code interpreter plugin, is an experimental Python interpreter that works in a firewalled sandbox execution environment. The plugin can use Python and handle uploads and downloads. This would allow users to solve mathematical problems, perform data analysis, data visualization, and convert files, amongst other logical computations.
OpenAI is initially rolling out the plugins to a small set of users that include trusted developers and ChatGPT Plus subscribers. The introduction brings capabilities to the chatbot similar to Microsoft’s application of GPT-4 on its search engine Bing, the underlying system behind the latest version of ChatGPT. However, this goes a step beyond in terms of not just allowing the chatbot to have access to real-time information but also allowing the system to perform actions on behalf of the user by binding to APIs. However, concerns have been raised over the harmful potential of such automated action performers, yet OpenAI says that it has put in place “several safeguards” to limit misuse.
The launch of plugin support for ChatGPT represents another significant step forward for OpenAI and the field of AI chatbot technology. As the use of chatbots continues to grow, the ability to access live data in real-time will become increasingly important, and OpenAI is well-positioned to lead the way in this area.
