Big move! ChatGPT started networking, evolving from a tool to a platform overnight?

"Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" on March 24 (Editor Song Ziqiao) As the leader of this round of AI wave, ChatGPT is iterating rapidly, and after updating the large model to GPT-4, the problem that the training data cannot be updated in real time will also be solved, and it is even expected to enter the queue of developer platforms.

OpenAI announced on March 24 that it partially lifted the restriction that ChatGPT cannot connect to the Internet. Its CEO, Sam Altman, said, "We're starting to roll out ChatGPT plugins that you can install to help with a wide variety of tasks, and we're excited to see what the developers have created!" ”

How does OpenAI do it? Attach an external hanging.

The solution is to use plugins as a bridge to allow ChatGPT to access up-to-date, even private information outside of the training data, and add specific features. After installing the plugin, users can use ChatGPT to do the following:

• Retrieve real-time information: such as sports scores, stock prices, latest news, etc.;

•Retrieve knowledge base information: such as company documents, personal notes, etc.;

•Perform actions on behalf of users: for example, book flights, order meals, etc.

▌What are these plugins?

The first is OpenAI's own two plugins, including a web browser that allows ChatGPT to access information from the Internet, and a code interpreter that is useful for solving mathematical problems, data analysis, visualization, and file format conversion, enabling ChatGPT to use Python and handle upload and download tasks in a sandbox environment.

This is followed by third-party plugins from other companies. OpenAI has opened up the list of the first ChatGPT plugins. The plugins were created by Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier.

For example, Wolfram Alpha developed by Wolfram in the above list is a very powerful scientific question answering system, with data from major academic websites, publications and scientific institutions, and users can select and install Wolfram plugins from ChatGPT to improve their computational intelligence.

In addition, the Open Table plugin allows chatbots to search for bookable restaurants; The Instacart plugin allows ChatGPT to shop in local stores; Zapier can connect with apps like Google Sheets, Trello, and Gmail for office scenarios.

The current data of ChatGPT training is as of September 2021, and if the question relates to something that happened after that point in time, ChatGPT can only give an answer based on reasoning. Google's competitor Bard has the advantage of "real-time networking", Bard once said: "Compared to ChatGPT, I am not only based on text and code, but also supported by real-world information on the Internet, so I can do things that ChatGPT cannot." ”

With multiple plug-ins, it means that ChatGPT can see the wider external world with the help of other websites/databases, and can also perform safe and restricted operations on behalf of users, thereby improving the usability of the entire system.

▌ Take this to become a developer platform?

OpenAI says it's working hard to develop the plugin and roll it out to a wider audience, starting with ChatGPT Plus subscribers.

To facilitate the creation of new plugins, OpenAI has open-sourced the code for the knowledge base retrieval plugin, which enables ChatGPT to access document fragments from data sources such as files, notes, emails, or public documents by asking questions in natural language, i.e. anyone can build their own plugins to augment ChatGPT's repository with their own data.

In the coming months, as security systems improve, OpenAI also plans to enable developers using OpenAI models to integrate plugins into their applications.

It is foreseeable that if it goes well, ChatGPT is expected to upgrade from an AI tool to a developer platform, and with the help of countless developers, enhanced AIGC tools based on GPT large models will sprurg up.

Many bigwigs in the tech world are excited about this.

"OpenAI sees ChatGPT as a platform game," Marco Mascorro, co-founder of Fellow AI, wrote on Twitter.

Mitchell Hashimoto, founder of open-source company HashiCorp, went so far as to say, "I've developed a lot of plugin systems, and the OpenAIChatGPT plugin interface is probably the craziest and most impressive approach I've ever seen in computing in my life." ”

However, connecting external tools also introduces new risks. OpenAI acknowledges that connected ChatGPT may execute malicious commands, such as sending fraudulent and spam messages, bypassing security restrictions, and even facilitating bad behavior that defrauds, misleads users, or misuses other people's information. But the company also said it had conducted "red team drills" internally and with external collaborators, rehearsing many possible scenarios to prevent that from happening.

As Altman said in a recent interview, on the one hand, we must be cautious about the huge unknowns of AI and the bad effects it may have, on the one hand, we must be cautious at this moment, on the other hand, we cannot just do technology research and development in the laboratory, these products must be promoted to the world and exposed to the real world, "Overall, I think people should be happy about the small fears that we have generated." ”

(Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, Song Ziqiao)