ChatGPT Plugins

ChatGPT is a powerful language model that can generate natural and engaging conversations with humans. But what if you want to enhance its capabilities with external data sources, computations, or services? That's where plugins come in.

Plugins are tools that allow ChatGPT to interact with third-party applications through APIs. They enable ChatGPT to access up-to-date information, run computations, or use third-party services in a safe and controlled way. For example, ChatGPT can use plugins to retrieve real-time information such as sports scores, stock prices, or the latest news; perform actions on behalf of the user such as booking a flight, ordering food, or sending an email; or learn new skills such as speaking a foreign language, playing a game, or coding.

OpenAI has recently announced the initial support for plugins in ChatGPT. Developers who have been invited off the waitlist can use the documentation to build a plugin for ChatGPT, which then lists the enabled plugins in the prompt shown to the language model as well as documentation to instruct the model how to use each. The first plugins have been created by Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier. OpenAI has also hosted two plugins themselves: a web browser and a code interpreter. Additionally, they have open-sourced the code for a knowledge base retrieval plugin, which can be self-hosted by any developer with information they want to augment ChatGPT with.

Plugins are in a limited alpha and may not yet be accessible to everyone. OpenAI is gradually rolling out plugins in ChatGPT so they can study their real-world use, impact, and safety and alignment challenges. They are also building a community of plugin developers and users who are shaping the future of human-AI interaction. If you are interested in joining the waitlist for plugins access, you can do so here.