OpenAI introduces GPT Store allowing custom chatbot transactions

With the introduction of new product models, chatbot agents can be created with unique personalities or themes

On Wednesday, OpenAI unveiled the GPT Store, a platform enabling paid ChatGPT users to purchase and sell specialized chatbot agents using the company’s language models. OpenAI, known for the highly popular ChatGPT, has been a catalyst in the AI boom. The existing ChatGPT Plus service offers personalized bots, and the GPT Store expands opportunities for users to share and monetize diverse tools.

Using the new models, chatbot agents can be designed with distinct personalities or themes, encompassing applications such as salary negotiation, lesson plan creation, and recipe development. OpenAI, in a blog post introducing the launch, mentioned that over 3 million custom versions of ChatGPT have already been generated. The company also expressed its intention to showcase valuable GPT tools weekly within the store.

The GPT Store has drawn comparisons to Apple’s App Store, encouraging expanded AI development from a broader user base. Meta provides chatbots with diverse personalities in a comparable offering.

Originally scheduled to open in November, the GPT Store’s launch faced delays due to internal disruptions at the end of last year, involving the removal and subsequent reappointment of Sam Altman as CEO at OpenAI.

The company announced in a blog post that it plans to initiate a revenue-sharing program in the first quarter of this year, allowing builders to earn based on user engagement with their GPTs. Specific details about this program are yet to be disclosed.

In a recent email to developers on the platform, OpenAI emphasized the importance of ensuring that chatbots adhere to usage policies and GPT brand guidelines. Alongside the launch, the company showcased various products, including offerings from the design app Canva and the hiking app AllTrails, in a press release.

The newly launched store is accessible to subscribers of premium services such as ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise, along with a new subscription tier named Team, priced at $25 per month for each user. Team subscribers are granted the ability to craft custom GPTs tailored to their team’s requirements.

During the inaugural demo day for developers, Altman extended an offer to cover legal costs for developers facing potential copyright law issues related to creating products based on ChatGPT and OpenAI’s technology. OpenAI has faced multiple copyright infringement lawsuits for using copyrighted text in training its extensive language models. Altman, in early January, emphasized the difficulty of creating ChatGPT without incorporating copyrighted material into the AI’s training corpus.

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s primary offering, was quietly introduced in November 2022, initially receiving modest attention but swiftly gaining popularity among consumers, amassing 100 million users within a few months. In addition to ChatGPT, OpenAI also develops Dall-E, an image generation software. However, it remains unclear whether the store will support customized image bots or exclusively cater to unique chatbots.