What Did OpenAI Do This Week? - 26/03/2023 [+30 LINKS]
CHATGPT PLUGINS IS ‘APP STORE’ MOMENT…OR IS IT?
While OpenAI's CEO "feels awful" about the bug that exposed brief descriptions of other users' conversations and financial data to people on the service, causing OpenAI to take ChatGPT offline temporarily, the bug isn't the big story this week. ChatGPT's launching plugins is huge news for the company and the wider world.
Why? Per OpenAI, "Plugins are tools designed specifically for language models with safety as a core principle, and help ChatGPT access up-to-date information, run computations, or use third-party services." Before ChatGPT was stuck in 2021, now it can go real-time. OpenAI also open-sourced the code for a knowledgebase retrieval plugin and launched two of its own (a web browser and a code interpreter) amidst an array of partner plugins:
In layman's terms: ChatGPT plug-ins will allow companies to offer the AI-based natural language processor for their products, allowing users to ask detailed questions and get human-like answers with minimal coding. OpenAI has made it so that ChatGPT can now access the internet, run its own code to solve problems, accept and work on uploaded files, and write its own interfaces to third-party apps.
The move exponentially expands ChatGPT’s capabilities and user base, as many users are unlikely to know they are using ChatGPT. The Zapier integration alone allows ChatGPT to execute +50,000 actions (including search, update, and write) with Zapier's 5,000+ supported apps.
According to critics, browsing live data from the web opens a whole new area of issues. The big picture? ChatGPT is no longer stuck in 2021, but fear not, ChatGPT’s plugins are not going live widely (yet); just to “a small set of users” comprised of developers and ChatGPT plus users who we can all be certain have nothing but the best intentions(!).
SO WHAT?
OpenAI is at least appearing to think - or say they are thinking - about safety concerns. OpenAI mentioned safety +15 times throughout the introductory post, so it's on OpenAI's mind. The most significant sticking point for critics seems to be that OpenAI's plugin doesn't just retrieve real-time information but can utilise APIs that let it "perform actions on behalf of the user".
The biggest loser here? Publishers. Publishers who don't want to provide ChatGPT with their content – after all, the AI is likely to prevent a click on the corresponding website – can block the ChatGPT crawler. You're not wrong if that sounds like upending how the web works today. OpenAI acknowledges it; "We appreciate that this is a new method of interacting with the web and welcome feedback on additional ways to drive traffic back to sources and add to the overall health of the ecosystem." If the startup mantra 'move fast, and break things' is ringing in your ears, you are not alone. Another critical issue remains the potential for disinformation.
The company says it has considered threats posed by these plug-ins and has “implemented several safeguards” along with different formatting to let readers know the issues at hand. The move is designed to inspire more developers to build future use cases for ChatGPT and get a stranglehold on the market before Google has time to utilise its scale with Bard. Analyst Benedict Evans raised a good point; “Wondering if ChatGPT plug-ins are the new App Store or the new Alexa skills. And, by extension, an admission that this is orders of magnitude less powerful than it looks.”
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Leaked Microsoft documents show OpenAI is pitching almost identical products to Microsoft Azure. /The Information
OpenAI CTO, Mira Murati, joined the Biotech AI startup ‘Unlearn’ board. /Reuters
OpenAI research says AI won’t take your job, but LLMs are trying to automate tasks by writers, UI designers, and programmers. /Gizmodo
OpenAI led a $23.5M series A funding for robotics company ‘1X’. /Medium
Shivon Zilis, a Musk associate, stepped down from the OpenAI board. /The Information
OpenAI rolled out plugins in ChatGPT. /OpenAI Blog
GPT-4 became available in preview in Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI Service. /TechCircle
OpenAI connected ChatGPT to the internet. /TechCrunch
OpenAI suffered a bug that affected user ChatGPT history issue. /OpenAI
OpenAI formed a partnership with startup accelerator Neo. /Bloomberg
OpenAI believes 1.2% of ChatGPT Plus subscribers' personal info is affected. /OpenAI
DALL·E launched a Bing AI chatbot integration. /Mashable
GPT-4 AI model previews to Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI users. /Redmond Mag
GPT-4 model is being used by GitHub Copilot X to help developers write and fix code. /TheVerge
Sam Altman didn’t take any equity in OpenAI. /Semafor
Sam Altman responded to Elon Musk's criticism of OpenAI: 'I mean, he's a jerk,' but 'he does really care'. /BI
ChatGPT is complicating efforts by European Union lawmakers to agree on landmark AI laws. /Reuters
Elon Musk offered to take control of OpenAI in 2018. /Semafor
How ChatGPT will revolutionise the economy. /MIT
How capable is GPT-4? /ExponentialView
Google Bard was released to select journalists and influencers this week. /Verge
OpenAI may have tested GPT-4 on its training data, violating the cardinal rule of ML. /AIsnakeoil
Kara Swisher interviewed Sam Altman. /NY Mag [Must Listen]
OpenAI's GPT-4 failed the CFA Institute's sample of the finance world's toughest exam, scoring eight out of 24, even though the answers are on the CFA's website. /FT
Canva is using ChatGPT to take on Adobe. /FastCompany
Adobe launched a DALL-E competitor called ‘Firefly. /Editorialge
Jackson Greathouse used ChatGPT to turn $100 into a business. Here are the first 4 steps the AI chatbot gave him. /BusinessInsider
How Artists and AI Developers can navigate uncertain IP terrain. /Bloomberg Law
Stanford University has copied the ChatGPT AI for less than $600. /NewsAtlas.com
Databricks (a startup valued at $38 billion) launched its open-source chatbot as a cheaper ChatGPT alternative. /Reuters
Microsoft announced an OpenAI-powered doctor’s note product. /CNBC
Coca-Cola invited fans to create AI art with its iconic imagery. /FastCompany