The Internet is changing: ChatGPT has grown "manipulative" hands and feet, but that's just the beginning

Recently, a piece of big news about ChatGPT has come out again, that is, OpenAI has officially connected ChatGPT to the Internet, and this means that more applications may be integrated into OpenAI's ecology in the future, which may be an opportunity for developers, but brings a stronger sense of pressure for other companies who are laying out ChatGPT products.

"GPT is a new industrial revolution, the significance of which transcends the invention of the Internet and iPhone." Zhou Hongyi, the founder of 360 Group, said at the 2023 China Development High-Level Forum on March 25.

In a speech entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Future Security", Zhou Hongyi gave GPT-4 a very high evaluation: "It is already the smartest 'man' in the world." He believes that in the future, every industry, enterprise and individual will have customized GPT.

Even that, he believes, is enough of a threat to the Internet. "All websites are open API to him, which means it has hands and feet to manipulate every website, and when AI is attacked, it means the whole Internet is going to be in big trouble."

In the early hours of March 24, OpenAI announced that it was using a third-party plugin as an intermediary to enable ChatGPT to access other websites and get real-time information. In other words, OpenAI has plugged ChatGPT into the Internet.

At the same time, OpenAI also opened up two of its own plugins: a web browser and a code interpreter and open-sourced the code for a knowledge base retrieval plugin that supports developers to self-host the information.

Previously, ChatGPT could only extract information from the training data, but the training data was only updated until September 2021, making its answers not time-sensitive. With the Internet connection, the problem of timeliness of responses has been effectively solved.

In response to OpenAI's move, Nvidia's AI scientist Jim Fan said on his personal social media platform: If the introduction of ChatGPT was "the emergence of the iPhone", then today (the launch of the plug-in feature) is "the iOS App Store "The event. In a later tweet, he said that the "App Store" is just the beginning and OpenAI's master plan is to make "an app that has everything", and that day will come soon.

Li Changliang, the former vice president and head of the AI division of Kingsoft and now an AI entrepreneur, told Quantianhou Technology that the emergence of the OpenAI plug-in will definitely bring developers the same opportunity to make money as Apple did in the early days, or even "a bigger opportunity" than then.

This indicates that a large number of applications will definitely emerge from the "App Store" established by OpenAI.

There is no doubt that this past week belonged to AIGC.

In addition to the ChatGPT iteration update news, Google also made a big move: it officially opened the public test of Bard to compete with ChatGPT. In addition, NVIDIA launched a variety of AI platforms and services at the GTC conference (GPU Technology Conference) to promote AIGC commercialization landing issues.

1. Opportunities for developers

OpenAI calls the plug-in store the "eyes and ears" of ChatGPT, enabling it to complete the search for real-time information on the Internet or professional information in specific segments.

According to the official website, the first batch of plug-ins available include: restaurant recommendations, hotel flight booking, online shopping, corporate office, legal knowledge, professional Q&A, language teaching and so on. Almost all of them include most of the people's daily life such as clothing, food, housing, transportation, work and study.

Some of the first plug-ins of ChatGPT  Photo source: official website

However, there are some security issues with having ChatGPT act on behalf of users, and OpenAI is aware of this issue, which it highlighted in its announcement, and has taken a number of measures:

The scope of users' use of the plugin is limited to retrieving information and does not include "transactional operations" such as form submissions; the Bing search API used inherits the reliability and authenticity of Microsoft's information sources; and the display of sources.

In addition, OpenAI limits the people who can get access to the plug-in, giving priority to a few developers and ChatGPT Plus users first. Users who want to use this new feature will need to join the waitlist.

What opportunities will the launch of the OpenAI plug-in bring?

Several AI entrepreneurs told Quantianhou Technology that a large number of applications will definitely sprout on the "App Store" established by OpenAI.

"It will give developers the opportunity to make money. But unlike Apple's early business model, Apple is a relatively closed ecology, while OpenAI is relatively open, and developers can use OpenAI's capabilities to improve their existing products and services." An AIGC domain entrepreneur said OpenAI is more friendly to some small groups of developers, and what was previously difficult for one or even a few developers to accomplish is now possible.

Some companies have already applied for the first trial, hoping to join OpenAI's "circle of friends" as soon as possible.

Ma Qianli, the co-founder of Boundless AI, told Quantianhou Technology that the company is already actively embracing the plug-in strategy. They have previously connected to GPT's external interface and are currently actively applying for the waitlist. "We hope we can experience and access it sooner."

In Ma Qianli's view, ChatGPT itself will become a super application, "like WeChat, and then access other small programs to become a new application portal."

So, what type of business will be most popular in OpenAI's "App Store"?

Li Changliang's answer is the content production track, such as marketing, consulting, etc., which is "closest to the first wave."

In the opinion of another AIGC entrepreneur, cross-modal types of business and general office tools will stand out, such as text, picture, music, digital scent and other businesses; office three-piece sets, email and other office businesses.

Some people are happy and some are sad. From the user's point of view, if applications and services are reached directly through ChatGPT in the future, there may be a threat to existing platform-based companies and customer service companies.

"It is foreseeable that in the future, all kinds of efficient tools can be easily integrated into OpenAI," said the aforementioned AIGC domain entrepreneur.

2. AIGC crazy week

In the past week, a number of "revolutionary events" happened in the AI field.

In response to the ChatGPT challenge, Google officially announced that it is opening up access to its chatbot Bard, starting with the US and UK. Users in both countries can currently wait in line at bard.google.com, and as testing progresses, Bard will gradually go live in other regions as well.

Google's position on Bard is that it is a way to "increase your productivity, accelerate your ideas and spark your curiosity".

Like ChatGPT with Internet access, Bard can access current information from the Internet and has a "Google it" button to let users search for themselves. At the same time, Bard can update itself according to the information on the web and reference the sources used.

Perhaps because of the previous launch error that caused Google's market value to evaporate $100 billion a day, this time, Google is quite cautious.

According to Wall Street News, Google has added a lot of Responsible AI work to Bard and spent a lot of time testing it for compliance before officially releasing it for public testing.

Before using Bard, users are required to sign a term of service agreement. The agreement emphasizes that Bard is only an experiment and will not always give correct information. Also, the agreement warns that Bard may react in an offensive manner.

Whether it takes a lot of time to do compliance testing or all kinds of warnings and reminders before using it, it all shows Google's cautious attitude.

But whether the cautious Bard can catch up with the "lightning-fast" iteration of ChatGPT and win the hearts of users is still unknown.

While Google and Microsoft are fighting, Nvidia, the "AI water seller", is not idle either.

On March 21, at the GTC conference, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang released a series of cutting-edge technologies and products around AI, quantum computing, chips and other cutting-edge technologies. The series of AI platforms and services launched focus on solving the two major problems plaguing AIGC in terms of arithmetic power and industry scenario applications, and are expected to largely drive the accelerated implementation of AIGC and realize commercial value.

"We are in an iPhone moment for AI, and the impressive capabilities of generative AI create a sense of urgency for every company."  Jensen Huang said.

Perhaps as Jim Fan said on social platforms, "App Store" is just the beginning. The overall plan of OpenAI is to make it "an application that has everything", and that day will come soon.