[Mania] Choose and Use ‘My Own Jarvis’ at GPT Store

Tried the GPT Store for Buying and Selling AI Chatbots
Customized AI for Coding, Video Editing, Tattoo Design, and More
Many Chatbots Violate Rules... Operating Costs Also a Challenge

‘A department store where you can choose and use your own Jarvis.’ This is the first impression of the ‘GPT Store,’ where anyone can buy and sell AI chatbots. On the 10th, OpenAI launched a platform that allows chatbot services based on its large language model (LLM) to be distributed. With a $20 subscription to ‘ChatGPT Plus,’ you can summon AI assistants with desired functions?from programmers to video producers, tattoo designers, and psychological counselors?just like Genie from the lamp.

Reviewing 200 million papers in a snap... also provides college entrance consulting

We first looked at the most popular chatbots among users in the GPT Store. Popular bots included ‘Consensus,’ which answers questions based on 200 million academic papers; ‘Grimoire,’ which creates websites from text input; and ‘Canva’ and ‘VideoGPT,’ which generate images and videos. There is no need to learn coding or install related programs to perform these tasks, as everything can be done within the GPT Store.

'Tattoo GPT' creates tattoo designs and shows a virtual preview of the tattooed look [Image source=Tattoo GPT in GPT Store]

We tested a few bots. Choosing Consensus, we asked, “Please provide numerical forecasts for the AI chatbot market outlook.” The answer came back: “The market was valued at $250 million in 2017 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 31% through 2024.” It also cited the authors and sources of the referenced papers. This complements ChatGPT, which required fact-checking due to the ‘hallucination’ problem of delivering false information as facts. Besides numbers, it neatly summarized various application areas of AI chatbots, concerns when using them, and measures to address these issues. This is a useful feature when writing reports or preparing presentations.

Not all tasks were satisfactory. Opening the image generation bot ‘Canva,’ we asked it to create a fairy tale book cover titled ‘Sunlit Sprout.’ Instead, it generated an image of a building forest titled ‘Company Business Report.’ Wondering if it was due to poor Korean language skills, we asked again in English, but it still produced an irrelevant image.

When asked to create a fairy tale book cover titled "Sunlit Sprout" using the image generation bot 'Canva,' it produced an incongruous image.
[Photo by Canva]

Regardless of performance, some bots had very creative ideas. Standouts included ‘Tattoo GPT,’ which virtually fits tattoo designs onto desired body parts; ‘AlphaNote GPT,’ which converts YouTube videos into study aids; and ‘MBA Admission Consultant,’ which provides counseling for Master of Business Administration (MBA) admissions.

Creating chatbots with GPTs... completed in 3 minutes

The reason diverse chatbot transactions are possible is thanks to ‘GPTs.’ In November last year, OpenAI released GPTs, which allow users to create customized chatbots without coding. This established an ecosystem where non-developers can create and trade AI chatbots.

The reporter challenged themselves to create a headline generation bot using GPTs. When asked, “Please create a bot that adds titles and subtitles when given article text,” the chatbot suggested the name ‘Headline Helper.’ It then asked what kind of articles the user mainly writes and what title style is preferred. After setting the article category, title style, and requesting a length under 30 characters, 5 to 6 exchanges later, the Headline Helper was completed in under 5 minutes. When inputting the content of a recent article titled ‘Naver’s Korean AI Recognized in Europe... Approved to Join European AI Alliance,’ it produced a plausible headline: ‘Naver Enters European AI Stage... Recognized for Autonomous Technology.’ If the title style is unsatisfactory, you can simply input revisions in the chat window. Even a humanities-oriented reporter felt programming was not a big deal.

Registering a chatbot in the GPT Store is also simple. Just save the chatbot and set the function category and user scope. Currently, over 3 million chatbots have been created this way. However, only those that pass OpenAI’s review are listed in the GPT Store.

Chatbot uploaded on GPT Store
[Image source=GPT Store homepage]

Many chatbots violate regulations... operating costs remain a challenge

Although reviewed, many chatbots in the GPT Store already violate policies. The ‘girlfriend chatbot’ is a representative example. OpenAI prohibits creating GPTs that foster romantic relationships. However, searching ‘girlfriend’ in the GPT Store yields numerous chatbots such as Lucy, Nadia, Virtual Girlfriend, and Korean Girlfriend. This means that despite regulations, chatbots that violate or circumvent rules can be created freely. Aware of this, OpenAI has blocked the chatbot review process.

Infrastructure costs are another challenge. Although the barrier to developing AI chatbots has lowered, operating them still requires significant expenses. In fact, after running several chatbots for about two hours in the GPT Store, access was blocked. A message appeared: “You have reached the GPT-4 usage limit; please try again after 2 hours.” To use chatbots without restrictions, chatbots must be monetized and their quality must improve accordingly. Even if useful chatbots emerge worth paying for, popularization is another issue. For general users, adjusting commands (prompts) to produce desired outputs involves ongoing conversations, which directly translate into costs. Reflecting on these concerns, OpenAI has yet to finalize its revenue-sharing policy but plans to share it with developers within the first quarter.