OpenAI launches an API for ChatGPT, kickstarting bot-app integration

ChatGPT’s application programming interface (API) will allow the chatbot to work in tandem with various products and services. Snapchat’s creators, Shopify, and others have already started using it.

OpenAI announced ChatpGPT and Whisper, the company’s speech-to-text model, are now available to integrate into apps via an application programming interface (API). In essence, third-party developers can now employ ChatGPT and Whisper in their products.

Since ChatGPT’s debut in November, several unauthorized APIs have tried to integrate the chatbot, violating OpenAI’s terms of service. The company has now launched its answer to meet the demand.

“The ChatGPT model family we are releasing today, GPT-3.5-turbo, is the same model used in the ChatGPT product. It is priced at $0.002 per 1k tokens, which is 10 times cheaper than our existing GPT-3.5 models,” the company said.

One token represents around four characters in English. OpenAI claims that 1,000 tokens roughly represent 750 words. For example, Wayne Gretzky’s quote, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” contains 11 tokens, and the US Declaration of Independence contains 1,695 tokens.

ChatGPT API might price out human representatives if it were employed to respond to user queries. Given the bot’s ability to form complex answers to detailed questions, the API’s introduction likely marks an important step towards enhancing daily interactions between humans and AI.

Snapchat’s creator Snap, learning platform Quizlet, grocery delivery platform Instacart and Shopify’s consumer app Shop are among the early adopters of the ChatGPT API.

Meanwhile, the Whisper API, based on the whisper-large-v2 model, will cost $0.006 per minute. OpenAI claims the service will accept various audio formats such as m4a, mp3, mp4, mpeg, mpga, wav, webm.

The company also says it will not use data submitted through an API to improve its AI models unless organizations voluntarily opt in, and that it will implement a default 30-day data retention policy for API users. Both moves seem to be aimed at curbing fears over data safety.