The 10th In January, OpenAI unveiled the “GPT Store,” a virtual storefront available to paid ChatGPT subscribers that allows users to create and obtain custom iterations of ChatGPT.
These iterations were called “GPT” and were announced by OpenAI last November. The GPT Store was expected to follow soon after, but its rollout was delayed by the events that saw CEO Sam Altman removed and then reinstated as CEO of the company.
Today, the GPT Store is finally here (at least in the US), and many are hailing it as a watershed moment equivalent to the launch of Apple’s App Store in 2008.
Here’s why I don’t think it’s entirely justified, but why it’s still important for marketers and businesses who want to harness the full potential of generative AI.
What are GPTs really?
Whether the GPT Store can be compared to Apple’s App Store depends on how fair the GPTs are compared to iOS apps.
The App Store opened Apple’s ecosystem for developers (after an initial foray into web apps that was poorly received by developers) to create third-party programs and experiences for the iPhone, paving the way for this which Apple has rather grandiloquently called a “global phenomenon…”. of “creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship” in its tenth anniversary retrospective. Finally, it was possible for anyone to create – and especially sell – an iPhone application.
The difference between this and ChatGPT’s situation is that OpenAI introduced a way to build native apps for ChatGPT a while ago, by open sourced ChatGPT’s API (for a fee, naturally) and introducing ChatGPT plugins .
These are available through the “Plugin Store”, which allows ChatGPT Plus users to activate plugins from companies like Expedia, Instacart, Klarna and OpenTable, increasing the capabilities of ChatGPT so that it can be directed for perform actions such as ordering food (Instacart) or finding a restaurant (OpenTable).
GPTs, on the other hand, are less sophisticated than plugins – by design, as they are intended to be no-code creations that non-developers can put together using OpenAI’s GPT Builder (itself even a chatbot within ChatGPT).
Daniel Li, co-founder and CEO of Plus, has a good explanation of difference between GPT and plugins (and Custom Prompts, an even “lighter” customization option that rolled out before GPTs), but the short version is that GPTs are a way to preload ChatGPT with certain prompts and settings to achieve the desired result. As OpenAI explains in its blog announcement:
“Many power users keep a list of carefully crafted prompts and sets of instructions, manually copying them into ChatGPT. GPTs now do all this for you.
Plugins are more likely to be of interest to brands wanting to create a version of their product features that can be launched from ChatGPT, while GPTs are likely to be more attractive to individuals (although they have a case of ‘solid use for businesses I want). I will explore shortly). Particularly because OpenAI has promised that revenue sharing for GPT creators will arrive at some point during the first quarter (the details of which are still unknown).
Why the GPT Store still matters
While I don’t consider the GPT Store to be on par with the advent of Apple’s App Store, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still important.
GPTs have made it possible for experienced ChatGPT users – and anyone else who wants to – to upload their own custom configuration for ChatGPT rather than starting from scratch each time, and the GPT Store now allows them to share it.
This means that anyone can benefit from this customization, whether or not they know how or why it works; they don’t need it. They can simply search for a GPT that meets their needs and use it (although, of course, there may be a variety of choices, and in this case, recommendations and good reputation would likely determine which GPT they choose – in this regard, the GPT store East like the App Store).
Adding the GPT Store to ChatGPT looks a lot more like what Benedict Evans was thinking about in his Unbundling AI essay from October 2023 when he compared LLM prompts to computer command lines and wondered what might serve as a graphical user interface (GUI) equivalent for LLMs.
Evans concluded: “…ChatGPT sometimes seems…like the original PCs…It’s a general purpose technology, there’s a command line and things that are theoretically magical, and a few things that are extremely useful to a few people, but we don’t. but they have the richness of all the software that came out on top – all the use cases incorporated.
“…for a lot…of people, it looks a bit like those PC commercials from the late 1970s that promised you could use it to organize recipes or balance your checkbook – it can do it all, but what?
What does this mean for marketing?
As ChatGPT quickly took off and users explored its capabilities, many began to speculate that specialists in “rapid engineering” – who know the most effective formulation to use to get the desired response from the AI – would be in high demand.
Then it became clear that facilities with LLMs like ChatGPT might need to be part of a worker’s standard skillset. Like Elisabeth Ling from the eSure group told Econsultancy Live in November, “(Y)ou need to do your homework… Use (AI) in your daily life, and when you know what type of algorithm does what, you will immediately make the connection.” “I have this type of problem, I can use a recommender… (or) I can use generative AI.”
Now the GPT Store and the GPTs offered can eliminate some of the need to spend time working with the tool to achieve the desired result (although familiarity with ChatGPT and its capabilities will still be important). Econsultance Future of Marketing Report 2023 found that many marketers are already using generative AI for marketing use cases such as written content creation and copywriting (58%), SEO keyword research (43%), and data summarization. emails, meetings and actions (38%).
GPTs could facilitate these use cases by allowing marketers to get started quickly with a purpose-built iteration – or by allowing businesses to easily assemble and distribute their custom ChatGPT configurations to employees. OpenAI allows ChatGPT Enterprise customers to design and share GPTs internally within a company – and its new Team plan seems suited to this use case as well, allowing smaller groups of users to access to a private section of the Store and publish GPTs securely.
The GPT Store has its fair share of teething problems, such as user complaints about copiers and the need to regulate and control quality, but OpenAI will surely have a plan to address this. Revenue sharing terms are also still unknown and their favorable nature may determine the attractiveness of GPTs to potential creators (who must “pay to play” by investing in a ChatGPT Plus subscription).
There will likely be many unattractive offerings, but at least for businesses and power user teams, the ability to create and share bespoke GPT configurations internally, ensuring that all ChatGPT usage is compliant with the brand, will be valuable. And for more sophisticated offerings, brands can always create a ChatGPT plugin.
Now, prepare for a wave of “How to Optimize for GPT Store” guides…
