To do that, Nick Turley, the Head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, envisions a bold new future for the immensely popular AI tool, ChatGPT. ChatGPT now has over 800 million weekly active users. Now it’s about to transform into a complete operating system that will allow third-party applications to plug right in. This shift aligns with OpenAI’s goal of commercializing its research and expanding the functionality of ChatGPT beyond its existing capabilities.
OpenAI recently rolled out ChatGPT in order to realize the potential of its revolutionary research by applying it to the real world. The company recognizes that the current user experience resembles the “command line era,” according to Turley, who draws parallels between ChatGPT’s development and the evolution of web browsers. He thinks that since a more intuitive interface should engage users, it will increase usage. This improvement will increase the success of users’ goal completions.
Enhanced plans for ChatGPT
New under the hood, the technocratic “AI app store” approach seen in the vision for GPT Store and ChatGPT plugins. This new model will open up third-party apps to the hundreds of millions of users having millions of these conversations every day. Of course, for developers it will create the potential for a new generation of applications that we could not even imagine today, as Turley points out.
“There’s also a whole generation of apps that people are going to build that wouldn’t have been possible previously.” – Nick Turley
To help guide developers in building responsible and privacy-centric technology, OpenAI released developer guidelines. The guidelines drive applications to only ask for reasonable data collection amounts. They stress being clear about what information you’re tracking and collecting from users. Turley ran through a great deal of the work and process that makes user awareness a critical component.
“From day one, we’re going to ask developers to disclose to users what information they’re requesting.” – Nick Turley
OpenAI intends to put user experience first as it rolls out new features and applications. This pledge serves by letting users know which data will be passed on to third-party applications. Developers would have to be held to rigorous standards for any requested user data, but this too would protect transparency as a foundational element.
“The thing that’s uncompromisable for us is transparency.” – Nick Turley
Turley further noted that no application that does not clearly fall within the bounds of a reasonable data request will be permitted on the platform. This raises the baseline for how data is used. This thorough vetting system is meant to ensure the safety of users while creating confidence in this very dynamic ecosystem.
“We’re also only going to let [apps] go live if they are reasonable in the data that they request.” – Nick Turley
Turley was inspired by successful examples from the tech industry, including Apple’s model of limiting data sharing. He lauded their approach, which gives users control over how and when their data is shared with apps.
“I think Apple has done a phenomenal job with this, where you can share data just this time, or all the time, etc.” – Nick Turley
OpenAI does not actually personalize based on user inputs. They’re accomplishing this by developing an integrated family of products and applications that connect through common user accounts. This smart policy move doesn’t just improve the user experience, it sparks creativity and innovation with app developers.
“You should really think about what we’re building as a family of products and applications that are tied together by your account, personalization, and identity layer.” – Nick Turley
Turley highlighted that developers’ empowerment is key to the evolution of the exciting ChatGPT Eco-system. OpenAI has a clear interest in giving these developers the tools they need to start building for this platform. In this manner, they can create scalable and profitable enterprises through the platform.
“We also want to give developers, who have been with us since the beginning, access to ChatGPT’s 800 million weekly users.” – Nick Turley
He reiterated that the goal of helping better applications succeed will produce “more winners in the ecosystem.” Doing so will unlock best-in-class usability user experiences for the end-user.
“If they’re able to enhance ChatGPT and build real businesses on top of that, it creates more winners in the ecosystem.” – Nick Turley
As OpenAI considers these game-changing developments, Turley is generally skeptical how big of an impact they’ll have on changes in the consumer business overall. He explained that it would be too early to see this new initiative just as another funding stream.
“I don’t think it’s fair to talk about the consumer business as a funding vehicle.” – Nick Turley
OpenAI continues to iterate rapidly on ChatGPT. Turley expects that users will come to view this initial version as only the first stage in what will be a growth process.
“I think we’re gonna look back at ChatGPT in a couple years and feel like the current product is in the command line era.” – Nick Turley
He recognized that ChatGPT is already impressive, exciting even, but that it’s missing important things that make it usable—what he called affordances.
“It’s really powerful, but it’s lacking something very important, which is affordances.” – Nick Turley
OpenAI clearly wants to go beyond simply making ChatGPT better. They dream of a bigger, equitable, open and inclusive AI ecosystem that benefits all. By prioritizing transparency and user experience alongside developer engagement, OpenAI is poised to redefine how users interact with artificial intelligence.