The Challenge, and Opportunity, of OpenAI's GPT Store
Morten Rand-Hendriksen
Tech Educator | Keynote Speaker | Pragmatic Futurist | Critical Writer | Neurodivergent System Thinker | Dad
If you make a useful GPT in the GPT Store, someone else will publish a more popular copy and make yours look like a cheap knockoff...
That is unless OpenAI has learned some important lessons from WordPress, TikTok, and its own plugins marketplace:
Coming up with novel ideas for useful WordPress plugins is hard. Copying an existing idea and grabbing the limelight with better marketing or more existing industry power is easy.
On platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram a great viral idea quickly gets copied by more powerful creators, and due to their existing viewer base the viral power shifts form the original creator to the more popular copy.
This problem, of powerful creators coopting original ideas with their more visible copies, is well known and prevalent in most online marketplaces. OpenAI is set to launch their GPT Store this week. When they do, we'll likely see the same phenomenon play out yet again: Great GPT ideas spawning myriads of varying quality copycats, and in the end the most powerful creators rake in the profits thanks to better marketing and popularity while the original creator is left frustrated in obscurity.
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There will of course be exceptions; Many GPTs will be natural language interfaces to external proprietary services. But based on lessons from WordPress, TikTok, and even the ChatGPT Plugins marketplace it is reasonable to assume the same story will be told again.
Even so, I'm hopeful that OpenAI will surprise us:
If they've realized the value of original ideas, they may have built a system where GPT ideas can be protected. If they've realized the value of a healthy creator ecosystem, they may have built a system where GPTs are vetted and ranked by performance rather than popularity contests masquerading as users and reviews. If they've realized some of the best ideas come from young creators without industry backing, they may have built a system that boosts the new generation in favor of the establishment corporations.
I have hope. We shall see what the GPT Store brings.
AI Tutor and Specialist, Prompt Engineer, Content Expert
11moThere is a dilemma when it comes to avoiding copycat apps on GPT Store. It resides in the fact that the best apps, the inimitable ones, will have proprietary datasets that set them apart from others. The issue that it has is concerning the safety of such proprietary data. If you are creating a GPT that is based on original data that has high value, you should take a pause and ask some serious questions. For example: -What security measures are in place to protect my data from being leaked to users in a way that I do not authorize? -If OpenAI's own training data has been shown to be vulnerable, can I be sure that my GPT's data will be safe? -What alternatives are there at this time for making and distributing GPTs? This last point is especially salient if you or your team have sufficient technical capabilities to develop your GPT elsewhere (for example, based on one of the many open-source LLMs and platforms). In any event, excellent and provocative posts as always, Morten! Cheers!
Analytics at Stream It, Inc.
11moIf you can build a custom GPT that is truly unique with great value, AND if you can obfuscate the underlying approach, you might have a moat. Obfuscation and protection of GPT IP is possible, but not trivial.
Administrateur Systemes et cloud ☁️| En apprentissage sur Azure
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Bookkeeper, Content Writer, and lover of all things entrepreneurial
11moIt’s a nice thought, but I don’t expect OpenAI will be any different, Morten. There’s too much money to be made.
Senior Network Consultant Engineer @ Cisco | Network, Automation, ML, DC, Cloud,AI
11moAgreed