Sam Altman wants developers to build useful tools around ChatGPT, but right now his company is annoying them. Just before the Christmas holidays, OpenAI sent out letters to plugin developers, people who build practical services using ChatGPT. In the letter, the company asked them to turn their designs into Custom GPT.
Thank you for your interest in creating plugins for ChatGPT. We took this experience into account and created GPT. If you have developed plugins before, most of the developments for this can be transferred to GPT. You can learn more about migrating or building tools from scratch in our developer documentation.
A number of developers wrote to X “RIP Plugins” after receiving this message. GPT and plugins are intended to do the same thing – create useful tools on top of ChatGPT, however there are key differences that make programmers prefer plugins.
The main difference is that GPTs are created using an intuitive chatbot interface within ChatGPT itself, while plugins are coded outside of ChatGPT. The plugin is more like an application connected to ChatGPT, and GPT is more like a chatbot with special knowledge and instructions. GPT is more accessible to ordinary people, but plugins offer more functionality. That’s why developers prefer them.
Developers have already written thousands of plugins for ChatGPT since its launch in March 2023, including products from companies such as Expedia, Instacart and Kayak. On November 6th at the DevDay event, the company completely removed plugins from the ChatGPT main screen, making them much more difficult to access. Sam Altman previously stated in an interview with Human Loop that “there is no market demand for ChatGPT plugins.” However, OpenAI then demanded that the article be removed. Now she is trying to move plugin development to a more consumer-friendly GPT Store format.
“As a plugin developer, I don’t feel this way from the same company,” one user wrote in the comments. “The plugins are superior to Custom GPT,” said another. “I really hope that OpenAI will not give up support for plugins,” says a post on one of the developer forums. “Preserving access to such powerful tools is critical to the development of AI applications.”
This isn’t the first time Altman has upset programmers. Earlier this year, a ChatGPT update added PDF analysis, which rendered many companies’ products useless. To which Altman said:
But as we say: don’t create a thin wrapper on top of OpenAI. We plan to implement over time the main obvious features that you should expect from a full-fledged platform.
The reason for prioritizing GPT with limited functionality may be to solve some security issues around plugins. As Wired reports, they can be used to steal someone else’s chat, obtain users’ personal information, and even run code on someone else’s device. GPTs are aimed at being more secure, but they have limitations that developers don’t like.
