One year on from its general introduction, OpenAI has announced some major upgrades to ChatGPT for its Plus and Enterprise subscribers.
New Updates Announced At DevDay
At OpenAI’s first ‘DevDay’ developer conference on November 6, the company announced more major upgrades to its popular ChatGPT chatbot premium service. The upgrades come as competition between the AI giants in the new and rapidly evolving generative AI market is increasing, following a year that has seen the introduction of Bing Chat and Copilot (Microsoft), Google’s Bard and Duet AI, Claude (Anthropic AI), X’s Grok, and more. Although this year, ChatGPT has already been updated since its general basic release with a subscription service and its more powerful GPT-4 model, plug-ins to connect it with other web services, and integration with OpenAI’s Dall-E 3 image generator (for Plus and Enterprise) and image upload to help with queries, OpenAI will be hoping that the new upgrades will retain the loyalty of its considerable user base and retain its place as the generative AI front-runner.
GPT’s
The first of four main new upgrades is ‘GPTs,’ which gives anyone (who is a ChatGPT Plus subscriber) the option to create their own tailored version of ChatGPT, e.g. to help them in their daily life, or to help with specific tasks at work, or at home. For example (as suggested by TechCrunch), a tech business could create and train its own GPT on its own proprietary codebases thereby enabling developers to check their style or generate code in line with best practices.
Users can create their own GPT with this ‘no coding required’ feature by clicking on the ‘Create a GPT’ option and using a GPT Builder. This involves using a conversation with the chatbot to give it instructions and extra knowledge, to pick what the GPT can do (e.g. searching the web, making images, or analysing data). OpenAI says the ability for customers to build their own custom GPT chatbot builds upon the ‘Custom Instructions’ it launched in July that let users set some preferences.
OpenAI has also addressed many privacy concerns about the feature by saying that any user chats with GPTs won’t be shared with builders and, if a GPT uses third party APIs, users can choose whether data can be sent to that API.
Share Your Custom GPTs Publicly Via ‘GTP Store’
The next new upgrade announced is the fact that users can publicly share the GPTs they create via a soon-to-be-launched (later this month), searchable ‘GPT Store’ – the equivalent of an app store, like Apple’s App Store or Google Play. OpenAI says the GPT Store will feature creations by verified builders and once in the store, GPTs become searchable and may “climb the leaderboards.” OpenAI also says it will spotlight the best GPTs in categories like productivity, education, and “just for fun,” and “in the coming months” GTP creators will be able to earn money based on how many people are using their GPT.
Turbo GPT-4
In another announcement, OpenAI says it’s launching a preview of the next generation of its GTP-4 model (first launched in March) named GPT-4 Turbo. As the name suggest, the Turbo version will be improved and more powerful. Features include:
– More up-to-date knowledge, i.e. knowledge of world events up to April 2023.
– A 128k context window to fit the equivalent of more than 300 pages of text in a single prompt.
– Optimised performance, which OpenAI says enables GPT-4 Turbo to be offered at a 3x cheaper price for input tokens and a 2x cheaper price for output tokens compared to GPT-4.
– ChatGPT Plus will also be easier to use, i.e. no need to switch between different models because DALL-E, browsing, and data analysis can all be accessed without switching.
Copyright Shield
The last of the major update announcements for pro users is the introduction of ‘Copyright Shield’ to protect enterprise and API users (not free or Plus users) from legal claims around copyright infringement. This appears to be an answer to Microsoft’s September and Google’s October announcement that they will assume responsibility for potential legal risks to customers from copyright infringement claims arising from the use of their AI products.
Google, for example, announced it will offer limited indemnity and assume responsibility for the potential legal risks where customers receive copyright challenges through using generative AI products like Duet AI. Although it’s not yet clear how Copyright Shield will operate, OpenAI states in a recent blog: “we will now step in and defend our customers.”
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
OpenAI’s work with the other big tech companies and its general launch of ChatGPT a year ago have established it as the major player in the new and rapidly growing generative AI market. Building on the introduction of GPT-4 and rapid monetisation of its services through its business focused Plus and Enterprise subscriptions, these latest updates see OpenAI making the shift from AI model to developer to platform, i.e. with GTPs and the GTP Store.
What’s exciting and useful about GPTs is that they don’t require any coding skills, thereby democratising generative AI app creation and providing an easy way for businesses to create tools that can help them to save time and money, boost their productivity, improve their service, and much more. The addition of the GPT Store idea allows OpenAI to establish itself as a major go-to platform for AI apps, thereby competing with the likes of Google and Apple in a way. The Store could also provide a great opportunity for developers to monetise their GPTs as well as perhaps being a threat to consultancies and developers already creating custom AI services on behalf of paying clients.
The more powerful Turbo GTP-4 and its more up to date outputs, plus the lack of requirement to switch between different models are also likely to be features valued by businesses wanting easier, faster, and more productive ways to use ChatGPT. Furthermore, the Copyright Shield idea is likely to improve user confidence while enabling OpenAI to compete with Google and Microsoft, which have already announced their versions of it.
All in all, in the new and fast-moving generative AI market, these new upgrades see OpenAI ratcheting things up a notch, adding value, making serious competitive and customer retention efforts, showing its ambitions to move to platform status and greater monetisation, and further establishing itself as a major force in generative AI. For business users, these changes provide more opportunities to easily introduce customised and value-adding AI to any aspect of their business.
By Mike Knight
