How ChatGPT's store could be a gold mine

Greetings, intelligists!

After months of anticipation, the moment has arrived.

OpenAI has announced that the GPT Store officially launches this week.

Why is this a big deal? Should you care about this? Is it true that it is a gold mine? Let’s break it down and have a closer look.

What are GPTs?

To begin with, in case you are unfamiliar with the term, let’s look at GPTs.

GPT stands for “Generative Pre-training Transformer” and is a generic term applied to specific platforms. ChatGPT is perhaps the most famous, but there are many others.

However, in the case of ChatGPT, a GPT is somewhat more specific. In this case, GPTs are miniature, customized applications that are part of ChatGPT.

In November, OpenAI (ChatGPT’s parent company) launched a tool called GPT Builder. It was made available to all paying users on their “Plus” plan.

This was an undoubtedly revolutionary moment in AI history. For the first time, creating custom AI apps became as easy as speaking English. Using natural language, GPT Builder lets you make completely personalized apps. It is revolutionary because you don’t need any programming knowledge or specialized AI knowledge to do it.

This means that nearly anybody with a bit of time and patience can build their own apps. The sky’s the limit in terms of what you can create.

Some examples of popular GPTs include:

• Planty (loaded with data on how to care for plants)

• Sous Chef (provides you with recipes using whatever food you have available)

• Coloring Book Hero (turns an idea into a coloring book page)

• Game Time (loaded with data on different kinds of games, helps explain them to newbies)

• Data Analyst (can analyze and visualize data files, such as csv or Excel)

Why should you care?

GPTs are not just for tech-heads or AI “obsesionados.” You can build GPTs just for yourself. They can be designed to make your work easier or just for fun.

For example, when I was writing scripts for a popular YouTube channel, I trained my own GPT by feeding it previous scripts that I wrote. I instructed the AI to examine my writing style, word choice, script structure, formatting, and more. In the finished GPT, all I have to do is provide a topic and some links, and the GPT generates a 500-word rough draft of the script that I can then work on.

I should note that what the GPT produces is not polished, nor do I use its output verbatim. Yet, since the GPT uses pre-defined templates and conventions, it gives me a basis to get a script started. My final scripts were about 1600 words and bore little resemblance to the GPT-generated version. However, the GPT was a massively valuable tool in overcoming writer’s block and procrastination while giving you a critical initial push.

boosted by building a custom GPT. For example, I built a lesson planning GPT called "Teacher's Pet." While it still needs more training data, it is designed to help teachers quickly make lesson plans, study guides, and even test questions. You can provide the materials it needs, and it uses pre-trained formats to produce outputs.

Another GPT I made generates outlines for articles based on URLs that I provide. Another converts scripts into outlines for articles. As you can see, building a GPT could supercharge your workflow if used correctly.

Now, why is the GPT store a big deal?

So, the GPT Builder is pretty amazing. But the GPT Store might be the next big thing. Here’s why.

The GPT Store promises to let any GPT-building individual sell and monetize their GPTs to all ChatGPT users. You can build any GPT you might imagine and sell it directly on the GPT Store platform, giving a percentage of any sale to OpenAI. You could also provide a free GPT and use it as a bridge to paid subscriptions or other services.

While OpenAI has strict terms of service, this is still a major opportunity. Current data shows that there are at least 180 million ChatGPT users and 1.5 billion unique monthly visits to the ChatGPT website.

With these numbers, there is no doubt that the GPT store will be the wellspring for new millionaires. Many will not have any programming knowledge, yet will be producing useful apps for people all over the world.

There will be some limitations. Some users reported censorship issues, such as an “Epstein’s Island” app that provided searchable access and summaries of publicly available depositions from the infamous Epstein case files. Despite not containing illegal content, OpenAI is very strict about avoiding any content that could remotely damage anyone’s reputation (even that of convicted felons).

However, this is nonetheless a massive moment. It might be the start of a new economic phenomenon. In a previous post, I discussed how the Apple App Store has become a $1 trillion+ per year ecosystem.

I’m not suggesting that the GPT Store will get that big. Indeed, mistrust anyone who tells you what the future will be like. But there will surely be big things coming in AI, and the GPT Store might be one of them. I, for one, will dabble and see what comes of it!