OpenAI Unveils ChatGPT Plugins to Avoid the Mistake of Myspace over Facebook; Naira FX Plugin?

ChatGPT now has plugins which support many brands like Expedia, OpenTable, Instacart, and Kayak. Plugins are software components which extend functionalities of existing software systems. In other words, when you add Kayak via ChatGPT Plugin, you can book flights, hotels, and other things which Kayak does very well. 

OpenAI has launched plugins for ChatGPT — boosting the AI-powered chatbot’s functionality and giving it access to live data from the internet. Until now, ChatGPT has only been able to pull information from its training data, which ends around September 2021. OpenAI likens plugins to “eyes and ears” for ChatGPT, letting the bot retrieve answers from the web and interact with specific sites and online services. In one OpenAI demo video, a person uses ChatGPT to look up a recipe and then to order the ingredients from Instacart. OpenAI has let a small number of third-party companies build plugins, including Instacart, Expedia and Slack; it plans to roll out larger-scale access in coming months. (LinkedIn News)

With the help of ChatGPT Plugins, you can now not only talk with the AI chatbot or write blogposts but actually do some fascinating things:

– Browse the internet and get recent data and information with the help of Microsoft Bing.
– Expand your knowledge with Wolfram, the most powerful computational knowledge engine.
– Write and run code with the help of a live Python interpreter in a sandboxed and firewalled execution environment.
– Search, shop, and pay for things with the help of Klarna and Shopify, the leading e-commerce brands globally.
– Find your next destination and book travel using Kayak and Expedia.

And so much more. The possibilities are literally endless here, and the world will never be the same again. This is undoubtedly the most giant leap in interacting with the internet since Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. This is the Apple App Store moment for AI.

What ChatGPT is doing is monumental because it is focusing on controlling demand by aggregating where the users are. Understand that Facebook did not win Myspace because it was a better technology, Facebook won partly because it provided plugins and other software components which made it possible for companies and users to find Facebook more useful: “MySpace faded because Facebook was born with integration capabilities, making it possible for merchants and creators to use plugins to convert their users into customers. For MySpace, everything was in its closed world. But Facebook gave you ways to login into websites, share your blog posts, link your feed and your website”.

Yes, those Sign In with Facebook, linkage with your existing website and others were catalytic. ChatGPT Plugin will centralize demand and deepen its moat. 

A new age is here as we’re going to see more core development projects moving into ChatGPT. Ecosystems like Android, iOS and WordPress will see a small drop as developers begin to explore how to examine emerging opportunities. Those making plugins in WordPress and apps in Android and iOS will re-evaluate how to allocate resources since ChatGPT is promising and can deliver quick wins.

ChatGPT’s new plugins. No longer limited to information in its training data ending in 2021, a small set of users now have ChatGPT plugins. At first, people will have access to 11 plug-ins for external sites like Expedia, OpenTable, and OpenAI’s own plugins, which can interpret code and pull information from the internet. OpenAI boasted about the variety of new use cases like browsing product catalogs, booking flights, or ordering food while also stressing that there could be negative consequences. “At the same time, there’s a risk that plugins could increase safety challenges by taking harmful or unintended actions, increasing the capabilities of bad actors who would defraud, mislead, or abuse others,” OpenAI said in an announcement post.

People, the world of big tech including Google, Amazon and Apple has a really brutal competitor in ChatGPT. Anything is now possible including a total disintermediation of sectors as ChatGPT becomes better on shopping, searching, recommendations, etc. Please do all necessary to make a ChatGPT Plugin for NairaFX at Official Rate; I will quickly download and use it! Lol.

Of course, you can still have a plugin to know if it is time to move your US bank account, as richer Americans continue to seek refuge in perceived  stronger banks: “Americans have moved more than half a trillion dollars from smaller and regional banks since the implosion two weeks ago of two West Coast lenders and the emergency takeover in Europe of Credit Suisse, according to JPMorgan data. They’ve opened accounts in banks deemed “too big to fail” — including JPMorgan — as well as in money markets, Treasury bonds and even bitcoin. The massive migration underscores fear about the safety of deposits even as the federal government says it stands ready to back these in case of further bank failures.”

Comment on Feed

Comment 1: It will be interesting to see how existing players like Android, iOS and WordPress respond to this development and how ChatGPT evolves to meet emerging opportunities. Additionally, I am curious to see how the use of ChatGPT plugins will impact user behavior and adoption rates. Do you think this will lead to a more centralized internet experience, or will it have a more fragmented effect?

My Response: You win when you aggregate as that ensures everyone comes to your ecosystem. So, having plugins for everything including ChatGPT LinkedIn Plugin to help recruiters to filter potential recruits would be expected.  One area I expect immediate application is communicable disease (at a level managed by public health officials). If they have a plugin, city governments can feed data into it, and possibly, it can also help in planning resources. 

If they deliver better results, some developers will leave Android and IOS. In those platforms, they only provide dumb infrastructure. But ChatGPT provides an intelligent infrastructure which makes its value proposition superior. To avoid going through the paths of iOS and Android, it can even get Windows to have another ecosystem.

This product is certainly a category-king and a new basis of competition is clearly evident.

Comment 2: We’re seeing a revolution. How will Africa benefit? How will we create better jobs here? I believe the first step is that everyone embraces it. Let nobody stay behind and say it’s a hype. It’s not. Thanks

My Response: Africa will benefit at the consumerism level since we can use Bing, and other solutions ChatGPT makes better. Of course, at the creative or production phase(over consumerism), time will tell. Our problem is not AI, but having 24/7 electricity. While they solved the electricity problem  more than 100 years ago in Europe, if you deliver light in most places in Africa, you would be hailed as a great leader.

Comment 3: My question is … How can you add in your desired third party app?

My Response: They will open everything later. I think they are focusing on some core apps at the moment. Typically, it is better you ask the community to scale apps than trying to do all by yourself. Apple for years felt it could build the apps by itself. But one day, they opened iOS for others to contribute and submit apps. That changed iOS for good. ChatGPT will do the same!

Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA (Feb 10 - May 3, 2025), and join Prof Ndubuisi Ekekwe and our global faculty; click here.