Artificial Intelligence is taking over every aspect of the online experience. Last week, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates shared his thoughts on the immense potential of AI to reduce some of the worst inequities. He went on to list how AI will revolutionise healthcare, education, and various other domains in his blog. A day later, OpenAI announced that it was endowing its AI chatbot with the ability to harness the power of the internet.
ChatGPT, launched in November 2022, quickly became a phenomenon owing to its comprehensive and humanish responses to prompts. This has also made it the most used application in the shortest span of time in the history of the internet. The power of the internet has been facilitated via a set of plugins that were introduced by OpenAI on March 23. The San Francisco-based company stated that it has gradually begun rolling out plugins for ChatGPT in line with its ‘iterative deployment’ philosophy. This, according to the company, was to assess the real-world use, impact, and safety alignment challenges faced by the sensational chatbot.
According to the company, users have been looking forward to plugins since the chatbot was launched and developers have been experimenting to unlock the wide range of possible use cases of the chatbot. As of now, OpenAI has given access to a small set of users, however, the company has plans to roll out widely in the coming months.
Moreover, OpenAI has said that plugin developers for its waitlist can use its documentation to build plugins for ChatGPT. The first set of plugins has been created by companies such as Instacart, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Zapier, Wolfram, Expedia, FiscalNote, Klarna, and Kayak.
Plugins on ChatGPT – What does it mean?
Until now, ChatGPT largely failed when it came to solving complex mathematical problems. And that was because the conversational chatbot was essentially a language model. However, that is about to change now, as OpenAI has not only announced a set of proprietary plugins but also the inclusion of third-party plugins.
The new set of plugins will let ChatGPT browse the internet and come up with relevant responses. However, it does not end there. With access to the internet, ChatGPT will let users do shopping, book tickets, and much more. Reportedly, OpenAI will introduce an online plugin store much like Google Play and iTunes that will let users purchase third-party plugins.
In essence, plugins will enable a person to share their to-do list with ChatGPT as a prompt, and the bot, in turn, would automate the tasks. It will assist in the decision-making and execution the tasks. While explaining the advantages of plugins, OpenAI alluded to them as eyes and ears for ChatGPT.
“Though not a perfect analogy, plugins can be “eyes and ears” for language models, giving them access to information that is too recent, too personal, or too specific to be included in the training data. In response to a user’s explicit request, plugins can also enable language models to perform safe, constrained actions on their behalf, increasing the usefulness of the system overall,” explained OpenAI on its blog.
How do ChatGPT plugins work?
According to OpenAI, plugins will help ChatGPT in tackling various day-to-day challenges. It can not only help the large language model with hallucinations but also will let the chatbot stay up-to-date with recent events. All this will be possible as plugins will offer explicit access to external data, customised information based on the plugin, code-based calculations, etc.
ChatGPT formulates a query from a text-based prompt from the user. Next, the plugin API processes the query and emits the results. ChatGPT later reinterprets the result for the user. While this may seem simple, experts suggest that hallucinations may creep into the responses.
What are the ChatGPT Plugins?
OpenAI has unleashed a whole new spectrum of possibilities after it announced plugins for ChatGPT. Below is a list of some of the plugins that can greatly enhance the quality of your life with ChatGPT.
Expedia: With the Expedia plugin, users will be able to start a conversation on travel with ChatGPT. It can turn the bot into a travel guide that will assist users in planning their trips. It will offer itineraries and up-to-date information on the availability and price of flights, hotels, car rentals, and vacation rentals.
InstaCart: This plugin will let users place orders from local supermarkets. The bot will be able to give you details of groceries and other household items with prices. One needs to list down their needs, and ChatGPT will take care of the rest.
Kayak: As the name suggests, the plugin from the metasearch engine lets users plan their trips. Once installed, users need to simply log in and type in a prompt like – ‘Where can I go this weekend for under $300?”
FiscalNote: This plugin will offer users information on legal, political, and regulatory data from their respective industries in real time.
OpenTable: The plugin will let users book a table at a nearby restaurant. It will offer suggestions from an assortment of restaurants in the vicinity of the user.
Wolfram: This plugin will transform ChatGPT into a math wizard as you will be able to access mathematical and computational information.
Code Interpreter: It will let users not only generate code but will also interpret results. These results will later be put to use in other applications.
How to access ChatGPT plugins?
Unfortunately, ChatGPT plugins are currently available to a limited set of developers and insiders. In case you want to have access, you can join the waitlist. Also, those with a subscription to ChatGPT Plus are more likely to get priority on the waitlist.
To join the waitlist, log on to the waitlist page, fill out the form, and click join the waitlist.
OpenAI in its analogy has called plugins the eyes and ears of ChatGPT. With plugins, ChatGPT will help users perform a variety of tasks. (Express Image) 
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