OpenAI has recently introduced plug-ins to ChatGPT, significantly broadening its capabilities and providing it with access to live data from the internet. This major upgrade overcomes the limitation of ChatGPT's reliance on its training data, which only spans up to 2021.
These new plug-ins enable ChatGPT to browse the web and interact with specific websites, transforming the system into a comprehensive interface for a wide array of services and platforms. OpenAI likens this to allowing other services to become ChatGPT's "eyes and ears."
Currently, Plugins are in a limited alpha and may not yet be accessible to all. You can join the waitlist to get access.
One notable demonstration showcases ChatGPT being used to locate a recipe and order the required ingredients through Instacart. The chatbot automatically populates the shopping list and redirects the user to the website to finalize the order.
We’ve added initial support for ChatGPT plugins — a protocol for developers to build tools for ChatGPT, with safety as a core design principle. Deploying iteratively (starting with a small number of users & developers) to learn from contact with reality: https://t.co/ySek2oevod pic.twitter.com/S61MTpddOV
— Greg Brockman (@gdb) March 23, 2023
Initially, OpenAI is rolling out plug-in access to a limited number of users, offering 11 plug-ins for external sites such as Expedia, OpenTable, Kayak, Klarna Shopping, and Zapier. Additionally, OpenAI is providing some of its own plug-ins, including one for interpreting code and another called "Browsing," which enables ChatGPT to gather information from the web.
The browsing plug-in is especially powerful, as demonstrated by an example in which ChatGPT is asked to compare the box office sales of this year's Oscar winners with recently released movies. The bot displays the sources it consults before providing an informed answer, a task that would have been impossible for ChatGPT prior to this upgrade.
This experimental feature bears similarities to Microsoft's Bing, which uses custom technology to supply GPT-4 (the language model underlying ChatGPT) with information from the internet.
However, OpenAI's plug-ins go beyond simply retrieving real-time data. They can also connect with APIs, enabling ChatGPT to "perform actions on behalf of the user," as stated in the company's documentation. This added functionality could make ChatGPT even more powerful, as it would be able to assist users not only in planning vacations but also in booking flights and accommodations.
Naturally, the prospect of ChatGPT performing actions on behalf of users raises safety and security concerns.
OpenAI acknowledges these potential issues and has implemented several safeguards to mitigate risks. As a precautionary measure, plug-in access is currently limited to a small number of users. OpenAI plans to prioritize select developers and ChatGPT Plus users for initial plug-in access, offering a sign-up waitlist for those interested.