The technology behind viral AI chatbot ChatGPT just got a whole lot smarter.
During its first developer conference held in San Francisco on Monday, OpenAI unveiled a series of artificial intelligence tool updates, including the ability for developers to create custom versions of ChatGPT. It is also launching a digital store and cutting base prices for developers while also pledging to pay some who use OpenAI products on their platforms.
The event comes nearly a year after the launch of ChatGPT, which helped renew an arms race among tech companies to develop and deploy similar AI tools in their products. CEO Sam Altman said 2 million developers now use the platform, and about 90% of Fortune 500 companies are using the tools internally. It currently has 100 million active users.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, an early partner of OpenAI, joined Altman on stage to discuss how his company continues to infuse GPT technology into its suite of 365 tools. “It’s so different and new,” he said. “I’ve been in the infrastructure business for three decades – and never seen anything like this.”
Among the biggest changes announced is the introduction of GPTs, or customized versions of ChatGPT. Similar to plugins, GPT can connect to databases, be used in emails or facilitate e-commerce orders, the company said. On its website, it says GPTs could be used to help with math tutoring, train for a marathon or design stickers, without any prior coding experience. Users can try it out via chatgpt.com/create.
“Creating one is as easy as starting a conversation, giving it instructions and extra knowledge, and picking what it can do, like searching the web, making images or analyzing data,” the company said in a blog post.
A digital ecosystem
OpenAI is also rolling out a GPT Store, starting later this month, to allow GPTs to become searchable. Similar to other app stores, they’ll be listed on a leaderboard, and the company will highlight useful tools across categories such as productivity, education and “just for fun.” The company said developers will also be able to earn money based on how many people are using their GPT.
Altman also showed off GPT-4 Turbo, the latest version of the technology that powers ChatGPT. He said it now can support input that’s equal to about 300 pages of a standard book, about 16 times longer than the previous iteration.
The platform will also have expanded knowledge through April 2023 “and continue to improve over time,” Altman said. “We are just as annoyed as all of you, probably more, that GPT’s knowledge of the world ended in 2021,” he added.
The company also said it is cutting the price for developers, to $0.01 for 1,000 input tokens, which is about three times cheaper than GPT-4. This would allow developers to save on overall costs when running high volumes of information through its systems.
Other improvements to the software include more modalities, such as enhanced text-to-speech with a more natural sounding audio with six preset voices to choose from.
Ramping up privacy
Altman said OpenAI is also doubling down on safety and privacy, noting chats with the tools are not shared with builders.
The company also introduced Copyright Shield, which will allow OpenAI to step in and defend customers –- and pay costs incurred –- if copyright infringement becomes an issue. Rivals such as Google and Adobe have taken a similar approach.
“The price and performance improvements, model customization and legal indemnification will have more immediate impact as these capabilities have been sought by developers for awhile now,” said Arun Chandrasekaran, an analyst at Gartner Research. “The autonomous agents will take more time to create an impact but are bold steps ahead for the future of Generative AI.”
In the meantime, OpenAI emphasized the latest announcements are only part of what’s still ahead.
“GPTs will continue to get more useful and smarter, and you’ll eventually be able to let them take on real tasks in the real world,” the company said in the blog post. “We think it’s important to move incrementally towards this future, as it will require careful technical and safety work—and time for society to adapt. We have been thinking deeply about the societal implications and will have more analysis to share soon.”
