How to Access ChatGPT Plugins

Although these custom plugins significantly enhance the capabilities of the most beloved text generator worldwide, it is likely that you cannot try them at the moment.

Open AI Announces ChatGPT Support ForPlugins

Recently, Open AI announced they have implemented initial support for plugins into ChatGPT. According to them, plugins are tools that can be designed to add functionality to ChatGPT, like accessing up-to-date information, running computations, or using third-party services to pull real time data.

To launch their ChatGPT plugin ecosystem, Open AI is following their typical game plan – limited availability to alpha and beta test before opening it up to everyone. The general flow is exclusive partners, then plugin developers for ChatGPT, then users, and then API availability for developers wanting to integrate plugins into their own functionality.

ChatGPT Plugins Waitlist

We joined the waitlist and if you’re interested in developing plugins for ChatGPT, I suggest you do the same. In our experiences, we’ve typically been accepted relatively quickly to new features.

Plugin developers who have been invited off the waitlist can use the documentation to build a plugin for ChatGPT, which then lists the enabled plugins in the prompt shown to the language model as well as documentation to instruct the model how to use each. Open AI also open-sourced a knowledge base retrieval plugin so you can study the source code and learn how it works.

Why Plugins?

Language models today although awesome in power are limited to learning from their training data. This information can be out-of-date and is one-size fits all across applications. Additionally, the only thing language models can do out-of-the-box is emit text. This text can contain useful instructions, but to actually follow these instructions you need processes.

Plugins can give these language models access to information that is too recent, too personal, or too specific to be included in the training data. Plugins can also respond to users’ requests to perform safe, constrained actions on their behalf, increasing the usefulness of the system overall.

The First 3rd-Party Plugins

Some of the first plugins already created include functionality from Expedia, FiscalNote, Instacart, KAYAK, Klarna, Milo, OpenTable, Shopify, Slack, Speak, Wolfram, and Zapier. Click on the links to see the specifics of how each company’s plugin will enhance ChatGPT. Below is a brief overview of what each plugin will bring to ChatGPT.

Expedia

With Expedia’s new AI Plugin, a traveler can start a conversation with ChatGPT to plan their next trip–complete with access to up-to-date information on the availability & price of flights, hotels, vacation rentals, activities, & car rentals across the world.

FiscalNote

Provides and enables access to select market-leading, real-time data sets for legal, political, and regulatory data and information.

Instacart

By combining ChatGPT’s ability to enable people to express their needs in natural language, with Instacart’s ability to make those needs instantly shoppable, the Instacart plugin lets ChatGPT users turn the ever-present “dinner dilemma” into instant inspiration and, ultimately, instant gratification with ingredients delivered to their door in as fast as an hour so they can get cooking.

KAYAK

ChatGPT will act as a virtual travel assistant, allowing for more conversational interactions with KAYAK’s search engine. Users can head to ChatGPT and ask it questions in the same way they would ask a human.

By simply typing in natural language queries, like “Where can I fly to from NYC for under $500 in April”, users will receive personalized recommendations based on their search criteria and KAYAK’s historical travel data.

Klarna

As one of the first brands to work with OpenAI to use its protocol to build an integrated Plugin for ChatGPT, Klarna is set to go live with a highly personalized and intuitive shopping experience by providing curated product recommendations to users who ask the platform for shopping advice and inspiration, along with links to shop those products via Klarna’s search and compare tool.  

Milo

Milo ChatGPT plugin is first way for us to serve all parents, not just our beta ones. Install and ask: “Hey Milo, what’s magic today?” You’ll get one idea to turn reg 20 min memorable. Convo sparkers, relationship builders, silly games. Beautiful mishmash of memory makers.

OpenTable

We may be the OG of the online restaurant reservation scene, but that doesn’t hold us back from keeping things fresh. We’re proud to be the first brand to bring restaurant recommendations to ChatGPT – aka the internet’s favorite chatbot – via its newly launched plugins. Even better: the recommendations come with a direct link to book on OpenTable.

Shopify

Search for millions of products from the world’s greatest brands and shop directly in ChatGPT.

Slack

Slack is “where work happens.” Bringing ChatGPT, a model that has this immense knowledge and capability for information processing, into the place where you’re already communicating and working with your colleagues is magic.

You can think of the app as a second brain that is right there with you in Slack, that you can rely on for instant help as you go about your work to be a more productive person. This app can truly help you understand and digest content and answer questions quickly for you.

Speak

Learn how to say anything in another language with Speak, your AI-powered language tutor. Speak’s plugin enables ChatGPT users to more seamlessly access a version of Speak’s language tutoring experience directly through OpenAI’s chat product.

Wolfram

Access computation, math, curated knowledge & real-time data through Wolfram|Alpha and Wolfram Language. ChatGPT—for all its remarkable prowess in textually generating material “like” what it’s read from the web, etc.- can’t itself be expected to do actual nontrivial computations, or to systematically produce correct (rather than just “looks roughly right”) data, etc. But when it’s connected to the Wolfram plugin it can do these things. So here’s my (very simple) first example from January, but now done by ChatGPT with “Wolfram superpowers” installed:

Zapier

The Zapier ChatGPT plugin is a collaboration between OpenAI and Zapier which allows you to connect 5,000+ apps (like Google Sheets, Gmail, or Slack) and interact with them directly inside ChatGPT.

You can automate tasks from within ChatGPT’s interface—saving you time and the hassle of context switching. Instead of jumping between a bunch of different tabs, you can just ask ChatGPT to perform a task in another app for you.

OpenAI’s First Plugins

Web Browser

The browsing plugin is an experimental model that aims to include current data in ChatGPT’s responses. It is currently restrained to its training data which is 2021 and before. We recently wrote about a Chrome browser extension that attempts the same. For example, I often try to use ChatGPT to give me the latest SEO articles published on the internet and it, as expected, fails miserably. This plugin would fix that.

Code Interpreter

This plugin aims to be a code interpreter running Phython in a sandbox. It’s aim is to allow junior programmers and other developers to write basic code with suedo language. This can help the learning process and speed up the productivity and time-to-code for entry level developers.

Retrieval

The open-source retrieval plugin enables ChatGPT to access personal or organizational information sources (with permission). It allows users to obtain the most relevant document snippets from their data sources, such as files, notes, emails or public documentation, by asking questions or expressing needs in natural language.

Conclusion

The plugin eco-system around ChatGPT is going to be huge. Like the Apple Store, Google Play, WordPress plugins, and numerous other plugin ecosystems, ChatGPT plugins will make the already breakneck pace of ChatGPT adoption even more so. If you’re a software developer, you simply cannot miss out. If you’re a user, you’re going to get one of the most awesome technology platforms released in decades put at your finger tips with near unlimited functionality and options.