ChatGPT Plugins

Exploring the Possibilities: Innovative Uses of ChatGPT Plugins

ChatGPT Plugins

One of the most typical limitations of ChatGPT is that this language model's training data serves as the only source of information, which can be outdated and not tailored to specific applications because the knowledge of ChatGPT is restricted to events that took place before September 2021. Additionally, language models only provide text as output, which may contain helpful instructions, but another process is needed to execute them.

Up to now, ChatGPT initially allows some first plugins, which can assist this language model in improving this limitation by their help in many tasks such as accessing current information, performing calculations, or utilizing third-party services.

It’s time to find out the benefits of potential plugins for ChatGPT to understand why they are able to innovate ChatGPT’s abilities.

What is ChatGPT Plugin?

Plugin is considered as a specialized extension that is developed to assist language models like ChatGPT. Plugins have the ability to help language models access a lot of information that is too recent, too personal, or too specific to be included in the training data. Therefore, they can broaden the scope of possible applications and enhance the capabilities of language models.

Third-party Plugins

In order that a plugin can be put into operation, an API needs to be exposed on websites of developers and it is also necessary for developers to provide a manifest file that describes the API in a standardized format. ChatGPT then uses these files to allow the AI models to interact with the API created by the developer.

In short, there are three main parts of an active ChatGPT plugin, including: An API, an API schema (OpenAPI JSON or YAML format), and a manifest (JSON file) that defines relevant metadata for the plugin. And some first plugins which have to be mentioned have been created by Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier. Moreover, OpenAI also develops its own plugins known as a web browser and code interpreter. They have made the code for a knowledge base retrieval plugin open-source, which can be hosted by any developer who wishes to enhance ChatGPT with their own information.

Why are plugins helpful and necessary for ChatGPT?

Although language models are very helpful in many tasks, there are still some limitations. ChatGPT, like many other language models, only can realize and respond to information on its training data. This limitation can lead to many outdated or wrong responses because the information can change quickly nowadays.

As a result, plugins were born to help ChatGPT widen its knowledge. A plugin is able to be “eyes and ears” for ChatGPT, and give this language model a chance to access a wide range of information that isn’t in training data. When prompted by a user, plugins can allow language models to carry out secure and limited actions on their behalf, ultimately enhancing the overall usefulness of the system.

With plugins, it may be possible to address issues with big language models, such as "hallucinations," keeping up with current affairs, and accessing (with permission) exclusive information sources. Language models can improve their responses with references to factual information by incorporating explicit access to external data, such as current information found online, computations based on code, or information retrieved via a specific plugin.

These plugins for ChatGPT not only increase the model's usefulness but also give users the ability to evaluate the output of the model's accuracy and veracity, potentially reducing the risks associated with overreliance as stated in the most recent GPT-4 system card. Last but not least, the utility of plugins may go far beyond fixing current constraints by assisting users with a number of new abilities, such as browsing product catalogs, booking flights, or placing food orders.

In short, beside the important introduction of ChatGPT-4 - which can only be reached to use by upgrading the accounts to ChatGPT Plus, the allowance of ChatGPT plugin is also a significant breakthrough to improve the remaining limitations of ChatGPT.

Typical ChatGPT Plugins available

As mentioned above, OpenAI has developed two plugins, including a web browser and code interpreter. The development team of this company has also open-sourced the code for a knowledge base retrieval plugin. Besides, there are many other third-party plugins that users can refer to. 

Let’s take a look at these helpful extensions right below.

Web Browsing Plugin

With a focus on both safety and acting responsibly online, OpenAI has developed a ChatGPT plugin named Web Browsing that grants a language model access to a web browser. The text-based web browser of the plugin can only send GET requests, which lessens (but does not completely eliminate) several categories of security vulnerabilities. This limits the functionality of the browsing plugin to information retrieval while excluding "transactional" actions like submitting forms, which present greater opportunities for security and safety problems.

Browsing uses the Bing search API to retrieve web content. As a result, we inherit significant work from Microsoft on source reliability and information truthfulness, and "safe-mode" to prevent retrieval of problematic content. ChatGPT's browsing activities are isolated from the rest of our infrastructure because the plugin operates within an isolated service.

Code Interpreter Plugin

This ChatGPT plugin has been provided with an active Python interpreter in a sandbox, firewalled execution environment, along with some ephemeral disk space. A persistent session that is active for the duration of a chat conversation (with an upper-bound timeout) allows code executed by our interpreter plugin to be evaluated, and successive calls may be made on top of one another. This plugin also allows you to upload files to the active conversation workspace and download the finished product.

According to many researches and reports, this plugin can help users in many tasks, especially solving quantitative and qualitative mathematical issues, performing data analysis and visualization, and file format conversion.

ChatGPT Retrieval plugin - an open-source for every developer

This ChatGPT plugin allows for the semantic search and retrieval of individual or group documents. By asking questions or expressing demands in natural language, it enables users to acquire the most pertinent document snippets from their data sources, such as files, notes, or emails. With this ChatGPT Retrieval plugin, businesses can make internal papers accessible to their staff using ChatGPT.

The plugin creates embeddings of document chunks using OpenAI's embeddings model, and on the backend, stores and searches them in a vector database. Developers can deploy their own ChatGPT Plugin through Retrieval and register it with ChatGPT since it is an open-source, self-hosted solution. Developers can select their favorite vector database provider from a list of providers supported by the Retrieval Plugin.

For more details, you should refer to ChatGPT Retrieval Github. This open-sourced plugin promises to be a great extension within ChatGPT for any businesses.

Third-party Plugins

Aside from three plugins developed by OpenAI, a list of earliest plugins from third parties has been accepted to be used for ChatGPT Plus accounts. These ChatGPT third-party plugins are the first plugins allowed to be installed with ChatGPT's interface and only a few users can add them.

Plugin developers have to sign up for Plugins Waitlist with a manifest file which defines third-party plugins, containing a machine-readable account of the plugin's functionalities and the method for calling them, in addition to documentation that is available to the user.

Users can pick which third-party plugins they'd like to have enabled while initiating a conversation on chat.openai.com. The conversation context includes information about the activated plugins' documentation, which the language model can utilize to call the proper plugin APIs as necessary to carry out the user's intent. Currently, plugins are made to access backend APIs, however OpenAI is looking at creating plugins that can also call client-side APIs.

Up to now, ChatGPT users are able to choose the plugins created by many great developers such as Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier. They are effective choices for you to make the most of ChatGPT’s capacity.

Every developer has the chance to submit their manifest files to turn it into a ChatGPT plugin. There is a button available known as “Join plugin waitlist” on the official website of OpenAI so that anyone can submit their products. Remember to read the documentation before joining this waitlist.

Let's innovate ChatGPT’s ability with ChatGPT plugin

ChatGPT plugins will be great tools to widen the knowledge of ChatGPT so that this language model can access a lot more information that is not included in its training data. From then on, ChatGPT can gradually learn from their manifest files to bring the best support for users.

Let’s sign up for the Plugins Waitlist and wait for the confirmation from ChatGPT in order to make the most of every ChatGPT plugin. It's time to explore the great capabilities of ChatGPT.

FAQs For ChatGPT Plugins