OpenAI has launched the App Directory, a new extension feature for ChatGPT that connects the chatbot directly to services such as Gmail, Canva and Apple Music. This update allows ChatGPT to go beyond answering questions and start performing concrete tasks across connected platforms.
ChatGPT has gained a significant update in OpenAI, which now has an App Directory. The new functionality enables users to integrate third-party applications like Gmail, Google drive, Canva, Apple music or Photoshop into the chatbot. It is intended to make ChatGPT not only a question-answer application but a digital assistant, which will not only describe something, but also perform it.
The new apps are a replacement of the older and less popularized connector – the past integrations that connected ChatGPT to other services like Google Drive or Slack. Although these connectors enabled the chatbot to search, reference and access stored content in its response, it had significant disadvantages: these connectors were challenging to locate, confusing to use, and not always consistently named.
The App Directory transforms all these by enabling everything to be easily accessed in a single place, which is located in the upper left in the Apps. Alternatively, one can activate functions by just typing the name of an app in the prompt with the help of an at sign. ChatGPT is no longer a search engine but can act. Indicatively, in the case of Canva, it does not only propose design changes but implements them. It also has the ability to edit or create text files in the related cloud computing, and through Apple Music it is able not only to suggest playlists, but also to create them automatically.
New security features of businesses have also been presented by OpenAI. In large business and enterprise accounts, the administrator is able to manage which apps are permitted and what access they get. OpenAI claims that the AI is not trained with the data in such environments. There have been mixed reactions in the community with some seeing the update as an exciting move to transform ChatGPT into a true personal assistant, and others are questioning its need or are concerned about data privacy. Early criticism has also targeted certain apps being not polished or underdeveloped.
