Instead of searching the entire web, OpenAI is looking to help you target your needs a little more by hooking the language model into other services via plugins.
In a blog post, OpenAI announced the launch of plugins for their popular language model, ChatGPT, to provide users with a wider range of possible use cases. The company says that plugins will give the chatbot a way to “access up-to-date information, run computations, or use third-party services.”
According to OpenAI, the company has already been working with a small number of companies to build plugins. It says that it has also starting invited some of the plugin developers who are part of the waitlist to get started building their own integrations. Companies like Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier have already built plugins for ChatGPT that those with access can start testing.
For example, Expedia says you can use its plugin to “bring your trip plans to life—get there, stay there, find things to see and do.” Instacart says you can use its plugin to “order from your favorite local grocery stores.” So, while the general use cases are the same, the plugins enable you to do so right from ChatGPT instead of having to jump between separate websites or apps.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, took to Twitter to share a demo of what using plugins with ChatGPT is like. In the example, Altman used the Wolfram plugin to calculate the distance between the earth and Jupiter:
The company noted that everyone will not have access to plugins right away and rather is starting with a “small set” of users that include “for plugin developers, ChatGPT users, and after an alpha period, API users who would like to integrate plugins into their products.” It says that it will roll out plugins more widely eventually, but does not provide a timeline as to when that might be.
The announcement comes in the same week that Opera announced it is bringing ChatGPT and other AI features to both of its browsers. Microsoft also brought GPT-4 to its Azure OpenAI service this week.
