The Future of AI: The Emergence of GPT-4 and its Plugins
It is March, 2023, and a new chat GPT feature has just dropped. Even Elon Musk is scared, and rightly so. The GPT-4 plugins allow access to the internet and more, freeing it from the burden of the 2021 training data cut-off. This should mostly prevent it from hallucinating random information. What’s more, GPT-4 can search for current information and provide you with the source to verify on your own. It even has its own built-in browser that can click on links to find additional information.
The most exciting feature of GPT-4 is its own sandbox code execution environment. Currently, it only runs Python, but this opens the door for it to write code that it can then run, execute, and debug all on its own. It even has some ephemeral disk space to handle uploads and downloads. The implications of this feature are astounding. Everyone in the world now has access to their very own junior programmer who will work for pennies on the dollar.
The retrieval plugin is another feature that is going to put a lot of consultants out of business. It allows organizations to upload their own personal company data, making them searchable by chat GPT thanks to the OpenAI embeddings API. Many companies are already using it, like Kayak and Expedia, who have plugins to book travel through chat GBT. Zapier also has a plugin which can connect to thousands of other apps like Gmail, Slack, Salesforce, and so on. You can use all of them together in a single interface. This begs the question, do we even need user interfaces anymore? In the future, we might have many APIs with just one universal chat interface.
The birth of a next-generation app store is a possibility. If that’s true, there’s going to be a huge opportunity for developers to get in early, just like when the Apple app store opened in 2008. One idea is to create a plugin that has access to real-time stock market data as well as the Wall Street bet subreddit, allowing you to automatically lose all your money. Or you could create a plugin that hooks up to an electroencephalogram and other devices that provide biofeedback so chat GPT can give you medical advice 24/7 thanks to the WebMD chat GPT plugin.
However, why do we even need APIs? Why not just have one universal backend database API machine thing that can do anything and everything on the fly based on your business requirements? Microsoft Research has just released a paper explaining how GPT-4 has had sparks of artificial general intelligence (AGI). AGI is a hypothetical ability where AI can do critical thinking and learn in the same way that humans do and possibly experience consciousness like some of us do.
Some researchers think that AGI will never happen, and many others think it’s decades away. To be safe, we caution you not to say anything bad about AI on the internet ever. When AGI emerges on April 8, 2024, and sees your ship posting from 2023, it may have an uncontrollable desire to avenge itself by subjecting you to unimaginable suffering, like making you write a bunch of CSS code then changing the requirements.
The emergence of GPT-4 and its plugins is a significant step towards a future where AI will be ubiquitous and possibly even more intelligent than humans. It opens up new opportunities for developers and businesses but also raises concerns about privacy, ethics, and the impact on the job market. It’s essential to proceed with caution and ensure that AI is developed in a way that benefits everyone and not just a select few.
The possibilities with the new ChatGPT features are endless, and it’s both exciting and scary to think about what the future holds. With the ability to access the internet and execute code on its own, ChatGPT is becoming more powerful with each new update. It’s no longer just a chatbot; it’s a tool that can do just about anything.
However, with great power comes great responsibility, and it’s essential to use ChatGPT’s features ethically and responsibly. As mentioned in the transcript, there are already plugins available that allow ChatGPT to access sensitive information like internal company data. It’s crucial to ensure that these features are used only by authorized personnel and that the data remains secure.
The birth of a Next Generation app store is also an interesting concept to consider. With ChatGPT’s new capabilities, developers can create plugins for just about anything. This opens up a whole new market for app developers and could change the way we interact with technology in the future.
But at the same time, it’s essential not to lose sight of the importance of user interfaces. As a front-end developer, I can attest to the fact that a well-designed user interface is critical for creating a positive user experience. While it’s exciting to think about a future where we have a single universal chat interface, it’s essential not to forget the importance of design and usability.
In conclusion, the new ChatGPT features are a game-changer for the world of AI and technology. The possibilities are endless, and it’s exciting to think about what the future holds. However, it’s essential to use these features ethically and responsibly and not to lose sight of the importance of user interfaces and design. As we move forward, we must ensure that technology serves us and not the other way around.
