ChatGPT’s new plugins will deliver real-time stats

OpenAI has introduced new plugins for ChatGPT to enable the chatbot to interact with third-party APIs, thereby tailoring its responses to specific circumstances, as defined by developers. ChatGPT’s plugin capabilities offer developers the opportunity to do anything from retrieving real-time information calls such as sports scores, stock prices, breaking news to pulling specific knowledge-based information like the company’s internal documents or from personal cloud. ChatGPT will even be able to take action on behalf of the user like booking a flight or ordering take-out. The AI model acts as an intelligent API caller and uses natural language to make an API call to perform actions. OpenAI has partnered with several companies, including Expedia, Instacart, KAYAK, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Wolfram, and Zapier, for the use of the chatbot’s existing apps. However, the plug-in is still in early alpha with limited availability, and interested users will need to add their names to the waitlist to try it themselves.

The new capabilities of the ChatGPT plugin

The new ChatGPT plugin capabilities allow users to tack on ChatGPT functionality to their existing code stack. The ChatGPT API will use the same AI model as the chatbot, enabling developers to add either unchanged or flavored versions of ChatGPT to their apps. This new capability is priced at $0.002 per 1,000 tokens. Additionally, the API offers a dedicated-capacity option for deep-pocketed developers who expect to use more tokens than the standard API allows. ChatGPT Plus, a $20-per-month service launched in February, is also available for consumer-facing use.

Stress-testing and safety features of ChatGPT plugins

OpenAI has stress-tested the plugins extensively to avoid the $100 billion hit that Google took over Bard. The company performed red-teaming exercises, both internally and with external collaborators, to reveal a number of possible concerning scenarios. OpenAI plans to use the findings to “inform safety-by-design mitigations” to improve transparency and hobble the plug-in against partaking risky behaviors. The added capabilities and information afforded by the model through its plug-in increase the chances of the model returning problematic responses. To mitigate the risk, the team designed ChatGPT to use plug-ins to bridge the knowledge gap between what the model was trained on and what has happened since. This should help reduce the AI’s tendency to hallucinate facts when answering complex questions.

The plug-in itself is still in early alpha with limited availability. OpenAI granted early access to a handful of partner companies including Expedia, Instacart, KAYAK, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Wolfram, and Zapier for use in their existing apps. You’ll need to add your name to the waitlist to try it for yourself.

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