With the advent of GPT Store, concerns spread over ‘AI becoming cheap’, will startup ‘Domino’ become a reality?

The spread of AI chatbot marketplaces and the ‘future’ that GPT Store will change
AI startup that can't let go of tension, "virtually on the verge of extinction"
GPT Store, which has accelerated the adoption of AI in daily life, some say, “The impact will be minimal”

OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, introduced GPT Store, an AI chatbot online marketplace. With the emergence of a platform that allows easy buying and selling of high-performance AI chatbots, some say that the era of popularization of customized AI chatbots is fast approaching. In particular, GPT Store is designed so that various AI chatbots created by the general public can be easily used, so experts believe that the everyday use of AI will accelerate further in the future.

GPT Store launched, AI chatbot sales platform ‘activated’

GPT Store, OpenAI’s new service, allows companies and individual developers to distribute customized AI chatbots developed based on OpenAI’s Large-Scale Language Model (LLM) GPT. This opens a window so that ordinary people who use ChatGPT can easily utilize various chatbots developed. Using GPT Store is simple. You can view various chatbots by clicking ‘Explore GPTs’ on the left side of the ChatGPT screen, and you can also find the chatbot you want in the search box. The quality of information that can be obtained through GPT Store’s AI has improved further than the previous Chat GPT. For example, ‘AllTrails’, a chatbot created by AllTrails.com, which provides information on major hiking trails around the world, provided more accurate information about all types of hiking trails. In response to the question, ‘Recommend a hiking trail in Seoul,’ detailed information and photos such as ‘Bukhansan Mountain route, level of difficulty, and estimated time of 3 hours and 35 minutes’ are extracted.

With the launch of GPT Store, the speed of AI diffusion is expected to accelerate in the future. This is because even people who do not know much about coding can easily develop and trade AI to profit. This means that not only skilled developers who expect to make a profit, but also creative ordinary people can jump into AI development. In fact, millions of AI chatbots have already been released in the past two months. According to OpenAI, more than 3 million customized AIs have been developed since GPTs were first released in November last year. Regarding this, an AI industry official said, “GPT Store could play a role similar to the app store that led to the popularization of smartphones and the emergence of various apps,” and “It is an opportunity for developers to create and sell chatbots and generate profits.” “By providing this, we expect to promote the popularization of chatbots and the emergence of various chatbots.”

Activation of AI chatbots may destroy the startup ecosystem

Given this situation, some are concerned that the emergence of GPT Store could destroy other AI startup ecosystems. This is because if chatbots based on GPT-4, which are considered the most powerful LLM, pour out in droves, AI startups that are preparing similar services will inevitably suffer a huge blow. In response to this, an industry official said, “Many AI startups preparing for new businesses or starting businesses may lose opportunities,” and added, “If you operate in an AI industry similar to GPT Store, there is a possibility that you will be directly affected right away.” mentioned. In Korea, companies such as Rutten Technology and Dalpa, which operate a platform similar to GPT Store, are said to have come under the influence. They are expected to face considerable difficulties in the future as modifications to their business models become inevitable.

There is also a view that the impact of the GPT store could grow further. An industry insider emphasized, “The biggest significance of the GPT Store is that AI chatbots, which were originally sold to companies and institutions for tens of millions of won, will begin to be released at low prices through the App Store,” adding, “A significant number of startups are bound to take a hit.” did. It is in a similar context to what the American IT magazine The Information evaluated last year, when the GPT Store plan was first revealed, as “an event that will drive AI startups to extinction.” Some are concerned that AI startups may become dependent on Open AI, similar to the relationships between app developers, Google, and Apple. If GPT Store’s influence grows and it becomes the godfather of AI chatbots, there is a high possibility that the AI ​​industry, including Open AI, will also inherit the problems of the current mobile app industry.

“GPT Store’s influence will be smaller than expected”

However, on the other hand, some predict that the influence of GPT Store will remain minimal for the time being. It is expected that high-quality chatbots will be difficult to appear immediately as AI can be easily created. In addition, there are predictions that it will be difficult to attract the participation of developers with excellent capabilities or users with creative ideas because the exact profit model has not been disclosed. Open AI prioritized US developers as targets for profit sharing, but analysis suggests that there is a lack of carrots to attract developers who do not belong to this group. Some say that it would be more profitable to create a chatbot based on the application program interface (API) of the GPT model and sell it on the Google or Apple App Store.

Some say that the era of AI will arrive with the expansion of the GPT store, but this is still just excitement. The advent of the AI ​​era is still in the distant future. This is because ChatGPT itself cannot completely replace the search engine service in the first place. The current ChatGPT can understand questions entered by users and provide appropriate answers, but it cannot provide the vast amount of information and data provided by search engines at a glance. Additionally, ChatGPT is unable to respond appropriately to information that changes in real time. For example, information that changes in real time, such as subway operation information or traffic situation information, can hardly be recognized through ChatGPT. This means that the limitations of AI itself are clear. AI chatbots may be able to show their strengths in search functions specialized for specific content, but it is true that they are still weak in other areas. It appears that it will take a lot of time for the emergence of GPT Store to have a negative impact on startups as a whole.