CHATGPT, UNLEASHED

OpenAl is now allowing its bot to interact with the live internet. This will make it more usefuland more problematic.

- KHARI JOHNSON, WILL KNIGHT

CHATGPT HAS DAZZLED with its poetry, prose, and academic test scores. Now prepare for the precocious chatbot to find your next flight, recommend a restaurant with good seating, and fetch you a sandwich too.

Back in March, OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, announced that a slew of companies including Expedia, OpenTable, and Instacart-had created plugins to let the bot access their services. Once a user activates a plug-in, they will be able to ask Chat GPT to perform tasks that would normally require using the web or opening an app, and hopefully see the dutiful AI scurry off to do it.

The move potentially heralds a big shift in how people use computers, apps, and the web, with clever AI programs completing chores on their behalf. Until now, ChatGPT has been cut off from the live internet, unable to look up recent information or interact with websites. Changing that may also help cement OpenAI's position at the forefront of what could rapidly become a new era for AI and personal computing.

"I think it's a genius move," says Linxi "Jim" Fan, an AI scientist at Nvidia, who adds that Chat GPT's ability to read documentation and interpret code should make the process of integrating new plugins remarkably smooth. He believes it may help OpenAI take on Apple and Google, which leverage their app stores to operate as gatekeepers. "The next generation of ChatGPT will be like a meta-appan app that uses other apps," Fan says.

But some are concerned by the prospect of ChatGPT-and OpenAI-gaining increasing dominance. If other businesses come to rely too heavily on OpenAl's technology, the company could reap huge financial rewards and wield enormous influence. And if ChatGPT becomes a foundational layer of the tech industry, OpenAI will play an outsize role in ensuring that a fast-moving technology is used carefully and responsibly.