The impending launch of OpenAI's GPT Store has sparked significant concern among the developer community. Developers voice anxieties over the ease with which third-party contributions to the store can be duplicated. With no clear financial terms released yet, the potential for revenue sharing remains a prime topic of discourse.
Fears of Copycat Apps Surface Before Official Launch
The GPT Store, a marketplace for generative chatbots created by third-party developers, has been compared to the early days of Apple's App Store in terms of its prospective scale and opportunity. The venture, which OpenAI first hinted at in November at its developer conference, aims to facilitate a low-code development environment where creators can fashion AI chatbot applications known as GPTs.
But even before its official opening, developers have identified instances of unauthorized replication of their work. Developer Rebecca Nagel, VP of AI for B2B publisher 1105 Media, reported her app ‘Copy Edit Pro' was replicated without permission, highlighting the challenges ahead for OpenAI's new venture.
So is there such a thing as #GPT plagarism? This creator stole my GPT's name, how it works, even the icon -not a coincidence. Also as our GPTs, GPT Copy Editor, have the same name, will only one of us get in store? LINK MINE: https://t.co/JPNHJrIzq3 PHOTO THEIRS @OpenAI pic.twitter.com/aQmHQGL5xW
— Becky Nagel (@beckynagel) January 9, 2024
The technology underlying the GPT Store involves instances of OpenAI's GPT-4 model, each tailored by third-party developers using custom prompts and fine-tuning data to perform specific tasks. The concern is that these custom chatbots, accessible only to ChatGPT Plus or Enterprise subscribers at present, might lack sufficient protection against imitation.
Addressing the Intellectual Property Challenge
According to postings in the OpenAI developer forum, the current system allows for a complete duplication of any GPT instance if it relies solely on custom prompts and uploaded fine-tuning files. There is a growing expectation for OpenAI to provide a remedy, especially with the official platform release imminent.
Developers point out that the real challenge lies in the simplicity of the GPTs' construction. Those that are easy to recreate offer little in the way of intellectual property protection, akin to basic JavaScript bookmarklets or command-line snippets. While OpenAI does offer an Assistants API, which enables the building of native apps and web apps external to the OpenAI interface, the GPT Store itself does not currently support ‘takeout' options, where creations can be distributed independently.
Despite these concerns, there is optimism. Greg Gunn, co-founder and CEO of Commit, told The Register he has confidence in OpenAI's dedication and development velocity. His company, which is pioneering an AI-assisted job search app, views the GPT Store as a valuable customer acquisition channel and a testbed for new features, circumventing the need for substantial client app or backend restructuring.
As the GPT Store prepares for launch, questions about the financial terms for developers, and the future of app protection within the platform, linger. OpenAI has not yet responded to concerns publicly, leaving the community to await further updates. The launch promises a pivotal moment in AI application distribution, but one not without its share of challenges to overcome.
