OpenAI announced the upcoming availability of plugins for its ChatGPT system. Only a few are available, and access is restricted to a small number of users and developers via a waiting list. But a few early plugin partners have been revealed, and they provide a peek into how plugins will work — and the disruption that ChatGPT could potentially cause in how we search the Web.
Essentially, plugins allow developers with specific data sets to add that data to a user’s request to ChatGPT. In an example that OpenAI provided in its announcement, a user who asked a question about recommendations for Vegan restaurants in San Francisco received a response from OpenTable’s plugin. If the user chooses to follow the link provided, they’ll go to OpenTable’s web site to complete the booking.
It’s easy to see that ChatGPT’s interface combined with actionable and up-to-date information from plugin providers could seriously disrupt Google’s lock on traditional web search habits. Of course, Google will almost certainly be providing similar capabilities via their own AI interface, Bard.
There are currently just 11 plugins available, and they include:
- Expedia
- FiscalNote
- Instacart
- Kayak
- Klarna Shopping
- Milo Family AI
- OpenTable
- Shopify
- Speak
- Wolfram
- Zapier
Take a peek at the demonstration video from OpenAI on how plugins will work: