OpenAI’s GPTs store launches — and it is absolutely 100% not a store!
It is now more than 24 hours since the GPT store launched and I have read through dozens and dozens of opinions. What surprises me is that no one is pointing out the obvious: it is absolutely, totally not a store!
Here are some very basic things I would expect from the store:
- A way to pay for a given product
- A way to know exactly what each product does
- Some way of knowing if a given product does not do what it should do
- Some form of redress if the product fails
The gipeties (yes, I have invented my own word for GPTs ..) store does none of the above.
It is pretty obvious what it is: a directory. The gipeties “store” is just a list of items. Sure, you can search for items and there is some very basic information about each item but there is not a single item there that you can purchase!
And here's the kicker. It is not even a very good directory. It doesn’t really do a better job of helping us discover gipeties than google or most of the dozens of gipeties directories that have sprung up. It will just search for words in the description of the gipety provided by the author. When you do find a gipety the “store” does not really help you understand it. There are no ways to comment, explore reviews, rate an item etc.
Here is a gipeties directory which does a better job than what openAI has given us:
Dave Hu who created it has taken time to select some of the very best gipeties to review and in so doing has added value.
Towards a Marketplace for GPT Knowledge:
What OpenAI could do well would be to support a marketplace for AI expertise. In reality most gipeties are not inherently super valuable — it is the expertise of the creators that can command a price.
Gipeties themselves are often just a series of text prompts. There are already many discussions like this about the difficulty of “securing” prompts in the GPT Store. There have also been many leaks of prompts that have been shared on github.
The value to be discovered on the GPTs store is that of the creators. I have come across many gipeties that are not useful to me but which I can see have been created by a smart individual. I would be willing to pay the creator directly to help me get more out of OpenAI’s offerings. Unfortunately there isn’t a good way to do this now.
In a way, a “marketplace for GPT knowledge” like I am proposing would be best served by an entity that is independent of the LLM technology provider. That way people would not be subject to the whims of a single company. I am already brainstorming how such a concept would work and I will publish a follow up post on this soon. If you are interested in collaborating with me on this please reach out.
The roll out has been patchy and a few people have complained about not being able to access it. If you have not been able to see it for yourself, here is a preview:
