Why you’re about to see ChatGPT in more of your apps | CNN Business

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Get ready to see ChatGPT answers in even more places.

OpenAI is opening access to its ChatGPT tool to third-party companies, paving the way for the viral AI chatbot to be integrated into numerous applications and services.

The company said Wednesday that developers can now access ChatGPT’s application programming interface, or API, which will allow companies to integrate the tool’s chat functionality and responses into their platforms. Instacart, Snap and tutoring app Quizlet are among the first partners to experiment with the addition of ChatGPT.

The move comes three months after OpenAI released ChatGPT and surprised many users with the tool’s impressive ability to generate original essays, stories and song lyrics in response to user prompts. The initial wave of attention on the tool helped renew an arms race among tech companies to develop and deploy AI tools similar to their products.

The initial batch of companies accessing OpenAI’s API have slightly different views on how to incorporate ChatGPT. Taken together, however, these services can test how useful AI chatbots can really be in our daily lives, and how much people want to interact with them for customer service and other uses in their favorite apps.

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, plans to offer a customizable chatbot that offers recommendations, helps users make plans, or even writes a haiku in seconds. Quizlet, which has more than 60 million students using the service, is introducing a chatbot that can ask questions based on study materials to help students prepare for exams.

Shopify’s consumer app Shop and Instacart are launching chatbots that could help inform customers’ purchasing decisions. Instacart plans to use the tool to allow users to ask questions like, “How can I make great fish tacos?” or “What is a healthy lunch for my kids?” Instacart also plans to launch an “Ask Instacart” chatbot later this year.

There is clearly a demand for other companies to follow suit. Dating website OkCupid has already experimented with ChatGPT for typing matching questions. Other companies like Fanatics have previously expressed interest in using similar technology to power a customer service chatbot.

“With the level of user interest and usage, companies don’t want to be left behind, so there is a basic incentive to adopt new technologies to remain competitive,” said Michael Inouye, an analyst at ABI Research. “If users engage more with a service, that means more data for advertising, marketing of goods and services, and potentially stronger customer relationships.”

There are some risks, though. While ChatGPT has gained traction among users, it has also raised some concerns, including its potential to perpetuate bias and spread misinformation. Some school systems, including New York and Seattle, banned the use of ChatGPT in the classroom due to concerns about students cheating. And JPMorgan Chase is temporarily restricting employee use due to limits on third-party software due to compliance concerns.