by Prominent artificial intelligence company OpenAI has launched a new way for developers to sell and distribute their own customized versions of AI software through an online store, and industry participants and watchers say it could change how -businesses and consumers use technology.
The GPT Store will include personalized artificial intelligence applications, and will allow users to find and build versions tailored to specific topics or needs.
The store will offer custom versions of ChatGPT, created by developers who pay a subscription fee to OpenAI.
The GPT Store contains custom implementations of artificial intelligence. (James Dunne/CBC)
Think of an AI bot that only exists to help with dinner recipes, or math homework.
Or a program that uses artificial intelligence exclusively to generate “yo mama” jokes.
Jokes aside, those involved say that making custom AI apps available in an app store could be revolutionary for the sector, similar to how Apple and Google changed the way people interacted with mobile apps when they launched their respective app stores for phones.
“Being able to engage with an AI tool in natural language is a transformative moment in technology, and this will bring two sides of the market together,” said Sonia Sennik, executive director at the University of Toronto’s Creative Destruction Lab. “I think we’re going to see … more and more innovative tools built by people like you and me, who can talk to these models and interact with them now.”
Professor Sonia Sennik calls the app store for custom AI programs ‘transformational’. (Scarlet O’Neill/Submitted by Sonia Sennik)
Sennik called the new store “an avenue for accessibility,” and said that making customized artificial intelligence chatbots available in a mass market will help create a snowball effect, with more activity coming and attracting users and developers to this app store.
Accessibility opens but who is responsible?
“It’s going to give non-coders the ability to start producing in the digital world without going out and hiring a software engineer,” said Gillian Hadfield, a law professor at the University of Toronto who focuses on company safety and governance. . artificial intelligence. “Wow.”
However, Hadfield said there is trouble with supermarket artificial intelligence, as the laws and regulations are not clear on who is to blame when things go wrong.
For example, what if an artificial intelligence app was designed to book travel for a user – and it got it wrong?
At least one Canadian legal expert is questioning who is responsible for the errors GPT’s custom app may have. (Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press)
“So who is responsible? Is the contract valid? Can you get the money back if he bought the wrong airline ticket? I think there are a lot of questions about what happens to the way our a full market economy when you have these types of agents out there making things all over the world, and when you have very open access to produce them,” Hadfield said.
Canadian already on board
The GPT Store already has multiple users, including Vancouver-based tech company Commit, which has developed a custom app for finding, researching and applying for jobs on behalf of tech workers.
Greg Gunn, of Vancouver-based Commit, was the first AI custom app store with a tool to help tech workers automatically apply for jobs. (Submitted by Greg Gunn)
Commissioner co-founder Greg Gunn calls the launch of the app store a “fantastic development” and looks forward to potential financial recoveries.
“OpenAI has promised to share revenue with the most popular GPTs on their platform. This means developers like us don’t have to worry about collecting credit cards, or charging the users, or making refunds,” said Gunn, who revealed that on the day the store launched, they had the highest number of active users on the Commit platform.
OpenAI initially delayed the store
The OpenAI store is an attempt to build on the success of ChatGPT consumers, which brought the world AI generation last year, drawing in users with the ability to write human language.
The GPT Store will be implemented first for users on paid ChatGPT plans, OpenAI said. In the coming months, the company plans to add a way for GPT creators to monetize their personalized AIs.
Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, was in – then out – as the head of the technology company in late 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)
The Microsoft-backed startup announced the upcoming GPT Store in November at its first developer conference.
It was originally set to go live later that month. But in December, OpenAI delayed the launch of the GPT Store, stating in an internal memo that it was continuing to make “improvements” to GPTs based on customer feedback.
The delay came in light of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s surprise appearance at the company’s board, and his subsequent ouster when employees threatened to quit.
