ChatGPT is taking the world by storm, with new and interesting news coming out all the time. OpenAI recently announced a major update to ChatGPT that brings support for plugins that allow it to access live data from the internet. This step greatly expands the capabilities of chatbots, turning them into a universal interface for various services and websites.

Until now, ChatGPT’s repository was limited to training data valid until 2021 only. Recently introduced plugins allow the chatbot not only to surf the web but also to interact with certain websites. OpenAI likens this to letting other services act as ChatGPT’s “eyes and ears”.

In the demo video, a user uses ChatGPT to find a recipe and order ingredients from Instacart. The chatbot simply transmits the ingredient list to the shopping service and directs the user to the site to complete the order. First, OpenAI distributes plug-in access to a specific group of users.

The first 11 plugins serve external sites such as Expedia, OpenTable, Kayak, Klarna Shopping, and Zapier. OpenAI also provides its own plugins called View, one for code commenting and the other allowing ChatGPT to access information from the internet. The Audience plugin shows its tricks when the user asks about the box office of recent Oscar winners compared to other broadcasts.

Before giving a response, ChatGPT sources something it hasn’t been able to achieve before. This experimental feature is similar to Bing, which provides Microsoft’s GPT-4 (the underlying language model of ChatGPT) online data. However, the OpenAI plugin goes even further by allowing it to “act on behalf of the user” by integrating with the API as described in the company’s documentation.

This powerful update raises security concerns as ChatGPT can now perform actions for users instead of just presenting information. These issues were previously highlighted in response to an experiment involving GPT-4, where a bot generated instructions to a TaskRabbit worker to complete a CAPTCHA it was unable to respond to.

OpenAI recognizes these threats and implements protection measures such as limiting the availability of plugins to a small number of users. The company will prioritize specific ChatGPT Plus developers and users for access to add-ons and invite those interested to sign up for a waiting list.