From corny jokes to job applications, ChatGPT's new store is selling specialized AI software - Action News
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From corny jokes to job applications, ChatGPT's new store is selling specialized AI software

Prominent artificial intelligence company OpenAIhas launched a new way for developers to sell and distribute their own, custom versions of AI software through an app store, with industry participants and watchdogs saying it could change how businesses and consumers use the technology.

The GPT Store, offering custom versions of the popular chat bot, could reshape the AI industry, observers say

A screen.
OpenAI has launched an online store for custom versions of ChatGPT. Some observers believe the new platform has complicated ethical and legal implications. (Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images)

Prominent artificial intelligence company OpenAI has launched a new way for developers to sell and distribute their own, custom versions of AI software through an online store,with industry participants and watchdogs saying it could change how businesses and consumers use the technology.

The GPTStorewill include personalized artificial intelligence applications, and will letusers discover and buildversions tailored to specific topics or needs.

The store will offer customversions of ChatGPT, created by developers who pay a subscription feeto OpenAI.

A screengrab of a website offering
The GPT Store features custom implementations of artificial intelligence. (James Dunne/CBC)

Thinkof an AI bot that only exists to help with dinner recipes, or with math homework.

Or a program that uses artificial intelligence exclusively to generate "yo mama" jokes.

Jokes aside, those involved say making custom AI apps available in an app store could be revolutionary for the sector, similar to how Apple and Google changed how people interacted with mobile apps when they launched their respective app stores for phones.

"Beingable to engage with an AI tool in natural language is a transformational moment in technology, and this will bring two sides of the marketplace together," said Sonia Sennik, executive director at the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab. "I think we're going to see ... ever more innovative tools that are built by folks like you and me, who can now speak to and engage with these models."

A person in a burnt orange tie and plaid jacket is pictured outdoors
Sonia Sennik, with the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab, calls the app store for custom AI programs 'transformational.' (Scarlet O'Neill/Submitted by Sonia Sennik)

Sennik called the new store an "avenue for accessibility," and saidhaving custom artificial intelligence chat bots available in a mass marketplace will help create a snowball effect, with more activity coming as users and developers are both attracted to this app store.

Opens accessibility but who is responsible?

"It's going to give people who are not coders the capacity to start producing in the digital world without going out and hiring a software engineer," said Gillian Hadfield, a professor of law at the University of Toronto who focuses on the safety and governance of artificial intelligence. "Wow."

However, Hadfieldsaidtrouble looms formass-market artificial intelligence, as laws and regulations are unclear on who is to blame when things go wrong.

For example, what if an artificial intelligence app was designed to book travel for a user and got it wrong?

 A hand holds up a smartphone with a black screen with the words OpenAI in white.
At least one Canadian legal expert is questioning who is responsible for the possible errors of a custom GPT app. (Michael Dwyer/The Associated Press)

"So who's responsible? Is the contract valid? Can you get the money back if it bought the wrong airline ticket?I just think there's a lot of questions around what happens to the way our wholemarket economy works when you have these kinds of agents out there doing stuff in the world, and when you've made it very open access to produce them," said Hadfield.

Canadians already on board

The GPTStore already has multiple users, including Vancouver-basedtech company Commit, which has developed a custom app to locate, research and apply to jobs on behalf of tech workers.

A man in a Commit t-shirt is pictured next to a sign that says OPENAI DEVDAY.
Greg Gunn, with Vancouver-based Commit, was on the custom AI app store right away with a tool to help tech workers automatically apply for jobs. (Submitted by Greg Gunn)

Commit co-founder Greg Gunn calls the launch of the app store an "amazing development" and looks forward to potential financial windfalls.

"OpenAI has promised to share revenues with the most popular GPTson their platform. This means that developers like us don't need to worry about collecting credit cards, orcharging the users, ordoing refunds," said Gunn, who pointed out that the day the store launched, they had the highest number of active users on the Commit platform.

OpenAI initially delayed store

The store is OpenAI's attempt to build on the consumer success ofChatGPT, which introduced the world to generative AI last year, drawing inusers with its ability to write humanlike language.

The GPT Store will initially be rolled out to users who areon paid ChatGPT plans, OpenAI said. In the next several months,the company intends to add a way for GPT creators to monetizetheir personalized AIs.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI participates in the
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, was in - then out - as the head of the tech company in late 2023. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

The Microsoft-backed startup announced the upcoming GPTStore in November at its first developer conference.

It wasoriginally set to go live later that month. But in December, OpenAI delayed the launch of the GPTStore,citing in an internal memo it was continuing to "makeimprovements" to GPTs based on customer feedback.

The delay cameagainst the backdrop of the surprise ouster of OpenAI CEO SamAltman by the company's board, and his subsequent reinstatement whenemployees threatened to quit.

With files from the CBC's James Dunne and Reuters