HN Reader

I think Brian Balfour called this well. It's the app store all over again. Have a platform. Open to the developers with a gold rush, then close the doors and monetise and canabalise the best uses cases.

https://blog.brianbalfour.com/p/the-next-great-distribution-...

Tried the GitHub app, made sure everything was properly connected, and asked a question about one of my repositories. It repeatedly claimed (5 times) that it wasn't connected and couldn't do anything, telling me to check the checkboxes that were already checked. Only after I showed it a screenshot of the settings did it suddenly comply and answer the question. I guess it still needs more polish.

2024's GPT Store, killed 6 months ago, is back?

https://openai.com/index/introducing-the-gpt-store/

I have a specific prediction made that I want to document here.

There will come a new UI framework/protocol, maybe something over HTML/CSS/JS that works within a chat ui context for such ChatGPT (or other llm) integrations.

For example, if you have an ecommerce app or website and want to integrate it with ChatGPT then you will have to develop on the new UI primitives. The primitives might include carousels, lists, tables, media embed. Crucially, natural language will be used to pick and choose these primitives and combine them in the UI (which ChatGPT will decide how to).

Thinking backwards, I want my app to be displayed in chatgpt with maximum flexibility for the user (meaning they can be re-arranged acc to context) but also enough constraint that I can have some control over the layout. That's the problem I think will be solved.

> All submissions must come from verified individuals or organizations. Inside the OpenAI Platform Dashboard general settings, we provide a way to confirm your identity and affiliation with any business you wish to publish on behalf of. Misrepresentation, hidden behavior, or attempts to game the system may result in removal from the program.

They really want your ID

What's the benefit in giving free labor to Sam Ctrlman beyond what he's already extracted? And are they just going to steal whatever good apps get submitted?

@Spotify what are my top songs

I don’t have the ability to pull your personal top songs directly from Spotify because that requires accessing your authenticated listening data. You can view them in Spotify by going to “Your Library” → “Made For You” → “Your Top Songs”.

@Figma design simple hello world poster

I don’t have the ability to create designs directly in Figma, but I can guide you to quickly create a simple “Hello World” poster there.

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am I using is wrong?

ITS A TRAP! If your app is successful their infrastructure will see all the traffic, your responses and will be able to mimic what you do and kick the husk of your app in the weeds. (Unless your function comes from some massive unique dataset they can’t by access to.)

It's not clear how much ChatGPT is investing in the discovery part of the app store experience, so this seems like mostly a way for users to install apps they're already familiar with and use them from inside a chat. For now, it seems like you have to explicitly @-mention an app to use it.

Seriously, all this noise so we can get another walled garden thing. I’m not writing a single line of code for this “platform”.

If you want to quickly get started, we developed a react-based, type-safe framework to build chatgpt apps: https://github.com/alpic-ai/skybridge

Before artificial general intelligence there will be artificial general interface. One AI model will become the UI to all other services and apps. Maybe.

What I really want from Anthropic, Gemini, and ChatGPT is for users to be able to log in with them, using their tokens. Then you can have open/free apps that don’t require the developer to track usage or burn through tons of tokens to demonstrate value.

Most users aren’t going to manage API keys, know that that even means, or accept the friction.

All they seem to be creating is new APIs to interact with the models they created years ago. It's pretty clear that new models are not viable to train and that the supposed "scaling laws" are bovine feculence.

This was the feature they announced at DevDay in October. I've not heard a great deal of buzz about it since, but that may just be because it takes a couple of months for credible teams to build something interesting on top of this.

What is the execution environment of ChatGPT apps? If it’s users’ browsers, do I now need to worry about code that is running without my permission? Is ChatGPT gonna be cryptojacking?

The implicit announcement is that GPT is not forecasted to be an everything machine anytime in the near future.

I'm interested to see which companies and industries are willing to put ChatGPT between them and their customers, and how many will strongly push back against this feature.

Will be interesting how difficult the submission process will be, and which apps will get featured by chatgpt.

Maybe an ad based system coming soon?

> Apps extend ChatGPT conversations by bringing in new context and letting users take actions like order groceries, turn an outline into a slide deck, or search for an apartment.

Between this description and their guidelines these don't really sound like "apps", but a way to integrate an existing app with ChatGPT sessions.

I'm trying to figure out what's in it for the developer other than ultimately taking users away from ChatGPT. And just like what happened with Alexa skills, these "apps" will become useless when they are unmaintained.

Once again I have to ask: Aren't we just obfuscating everything to the point of knowledge loss?

Between long COVID and ai, nobody will be able to make fizzbuzz in Java, let alone code a frontend by hand.

Hey why not? It work for Facebook, right?

Wait, no...

Is this an attempt to engender developer goodwill that they've lost over 5.2s overfitting issues?

I've canceled my subscription, I don't plan on releasing an app to their platform.

Can't wait for mainstream media to run with headlines like "ChatGPT opens app store, should Google be scared for their Playstore?" smh

They. Will. Steal. Anything. That. Works.

They are unfocused. Need to stop with the mba playbook moves like this and just make the model worth paying for.

Another walled garden is what we needed, right.

Can’t really figure out if it’s a paid App Store or not. I suppose I can have them buy a license externally and have the agent validate that.

"Ohhhh nice user traction you got there, would be awful if anyone would steal that.."

It doesn't work in Firefox unfortunately. Spotify app just renders grey rectangle. It works in Chrome/Brave though. Just another example of "we only test in Chrome"/"works best in Chrome".

How do developers prevent users exfiltrating their apps’ prompts?

Who in the hell would trust someone like Sam Altman with this? Idea poacher. That's what they should call the program.