Now creating apps will be everyone’s cup of tea. At OpenAI’s first developer conference – DevDay 2023, Sam Altman made an exciting announcement about GPTs. These are essentially customised chatbots that anyone, regardless of their technical expertise, can create using ‘Natural Language’ which is very much a part of Conversational AI. 

“We know that many people who want to build a GPT don’t know how to code. We’ve made it so that you can program the GPT just by having a conversation. We believe that natural language is going to be a big part of how people use computers in the future” said Sam Altman. 

Furthermore, once users create their GPT, they can share them publicly on the upcoming GPT Store, set to launch later this month. The GPT Store is going to be pretty much similar to the Google Play Store or Apple’s App Store. 

Unlike the Plugin Store which was a hot mess, inside the GPT Store, GPTs will become searchable and may climb the leaderboards as well based on the popularity. Just like how there are categories inside the App Store on iOS, OpenAI will also spotlight the most useful and delightful GPTs it comes across in categories like productivity, education, and “just for fun”.

Speaking of what’s in there for creators, Altman said “Revenue sharing is important to them. We’re going to pay people who build the most useful and the most used GPTs, a portion of our revenue. We’re excited to foster a vibrant ecosystem with the GPT Store”.

With this OpenAI aims to create an ecosystem of its own. Founders of wrapper-based startups might soon join OpenAI’s online store by creating GPTs for OpenAI. It’s safe to say that basic startups may find it challenging to compete against OpenAI’s ‘agents’ or GPTs.

How to build your own GPT

At DevDay, Altman provided a brief example of how to approach building your own GPT using natural language. He demonstrated this with the assistance of a GPT named ‘Startup Mentor’ which offers advice to startup founders. Below is the interface that users will see when creating their own GPT with GPT Builder.

Within the GPT Builder interface, users can input their ideas and relevant information to create their customised GPT. For instance, Altman entered, “I want to help start-up founders think through their business ideas and get advice,” he wrote recalling his YC days, and laughingly added, “after the founder has gotten some advice, grill them on why they are not growing faster.”

Following this input, the GPT Builder automatically generated detailed instructions for the GPT. On the right-hand side of the screen, there’s a ‘Preview Tab’ allowing users to visualise the changes made by the GPT Builder to the GPT. Apart from web crawling and text-based training of GPT-4, GPT Builder also allows users to enter additional information by uploading files, in this case, Altman uploaded his lecture.

Some GPTs are already in the market

During DevDay, Altman highlighted a few existing GPTs developed by companies. For example, Code.org, crafted Lesson Planner GPT, to help teachers provide a more engaging experience for middle schoolers.

Moreover, Canva has built a GPT that lets you start designing by describing what you want in natural language. If you say, “Make a poster for a Diwali/ Christmas party ” and give it some details, it’ll generate a few options to start with by hitting Canva’s APIs. 

Additionally, Zapier has built a GPT that lets you perform actions across 6,000 applications to unlock all kinds of integration possibilities, without requiring any code. 

Undoubtedly, DevDay’s showcase of GPTs has highlighted the huge potential and proof of a turning point in the history of not just LLMs, but the AI field as a whole. Now, non-technical users can create AI driven applications without writing a single line of code, just with their ideas and creativity, and a little bit of prompt engineering.