OpenAI’s GPT Store Coming in Q1, Board to Expand, AI Summit NY 2023

OpenAI’s GPT store is coming in the first quarter.

That is according to Adam Goldberg, a member of the GTM team for ChatGPT Enterprise for OpenAI, who spoke at AI Summit New York.

It will be a marketplace for GPTs, similar to an app store. After the first quarter, users will be able to sell GPTs they created. 

“I think that’s going to be wild,” Goldberg said.

First unveiled in November at OpenAI’s first developer’s conference, DevDay, GPTs are custom versions of ChatGPT that companies can build for specific purposes. They can be built by users with little to no programming experience. Instead, the new GPT Builder program uses natural language.

Goldberg said GPTs would be the foundation for its AI agent framework. They are no-code and users can use them to build AI agents for workflows and business processing tasks. GPTs combine instructions, expanded knowledge and actions.

“You can build custom, bespoke, transformative AI,” Goldberg said.

At DevDay, OpenAI showcased the experience of Canva, an online design platform that has built a GPT where users can create designs from natural language. The idea for GPT Builder came from Altman’s days at Y Combinator, the startup fund, where he once said to himself, “someday I'll be able to make a bot that will do this.”

Related:OpenAI Fires CEO Sam Altman

This is different from custom models that OpenAI will build with, and for, clients. Currently, the startup is only working with “a handful” of customers and there is a wait list of “a couple of hundred” businesses, Goldberg said.

Also coming is a self-service portal for ChatGPT enterprise customers where they can sign up any number of users and pay for the service with a credit card.

As for when OpenAI will re-open ChatGPT Plus to new subscribers, Goldberg said it will be “coming soon.” The startup decided to stop taking in new subscribers after getting “absolutely crushed with demand” following DevDay rather than risk a degraded experience for all users, he added.

Board to expand

Goldberg also recounted the chaotic five days at OpenAI when CEO Sam Altman was unceremoniously fired and then rehired around Thanksgiving week.

He recalls telling his wife, “Satya will save us,” referring to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. After Altman's exit, Nadella tweeted that Microsoft remained behind OpenAI under new leadership. He then offered to hire Altman and other OpenAI employees who quit or wanted to quit in sympathy, but was also open to Altman returning to the startup.

Goldberg said he signed an open letter along with more than 700 OpenAI employees threatening to quit if Altman was not rehired. He said the feeling at the time was OpenAI was doing well and the message to its nonprofit board was, “don’t screw this up!”

Related:Sam Altman Returns as OpenAI CEO − to a New Board

OpenAI later would strengthen its governance, with a new board consisting of former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former co-CEO of Salesforce, Bret Taylor and Quora co-founder Adam D’Angelo. Only D'Angelo remained from the old board.

Goldberg said the board will expand to nine members but did not say who they would be. Microsoft will be appointing a non-voting observer on the board.