What actually shipped that day
OpenAI's own recap groups the day's developer-facing releases into three buckets: a new GPT-4 Turbo model, a new Assistants API, and new multimodal capabilities (vision, DALL-E 3 image generation, and text-to-speech), all rolling out starting 1pm Pacific that day. [1]
GPT-4 Turbo was released as a preview, reachable by passing gpt-4-1106-preview to the API. OpenAI described it as having knowledge of world events up to April 2023 and a 128k token context window, and priced it 3 times cheaper on input tokens and 2 times cheaper on output tokens than the original GPT-4: $0.01 per 1,000 input tokens and $0.03 per 1,000 output tokens, against $0.03 and $0.06 for GPT-4's 8k version. [1]
The Assistants API, also released in beta that day, was pitched as OpenAI's first step toward letting developers build agent-like applications: persistent threads that OpenAI manages across a conversation, plus built-in Code Interpreter and Retrieval tools alongside function calling. [1]
Atlas interpretation: The Assistants API and the consumer-facing GPTs announced the same day drew on the same underlying pieces, custom instructions plus tool access, aimed at two different audiences: one at developers building their own applications, the other at anyone using ChatGPT directly. [1][2]
GPTs, and a store that did not open on schedule
GPTs were described as custom versions of ChatGPT that anyone could build without writing code, by giving a base conversation instructions, extra knowledge, and a chosen set of capabilities such as web browsing, image generation, or data analysis. Example GPTs, including one from Canva and one for Zapier AI Actions, were made available immediately to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users. [2]
OpenAI's announcement said a GPT Store, featuring creations by verified builders and letting GPTs climb leaderboards, was rolling out later that month, with a way for builders to earn money based on usage coming in the following months. [2]
The GPT Store did not open in November. Reuters reported that OpenAI delayed the launch in December, citing an internal memo that said the company was continuing to make improvements to GPTs based on customer feedback, and that the store finally opened on January 10, 2024, initially to users on paid ChatGPT plans. [3]
Atlas interpretation: Reuters placed that December delay against the backdrop of OpenAI's board firing chief executive Sam Altman and then reinstating him after employees threatened to quit, an event that happened eleven days after DevDay. Of everything announced that day, the consumer store, the one piece explicitly promised on a calendar date, is the one that slipped past the company's own governance crisis and into the next year. [3]
Sources
- New models and developer products announced at DevDay
OpenAI · Nov 6, 2023
- Introducing GPTs
OpenAI · Nov 6, 2023
- OpenAI launches GPT Store to capitalize on ChatGPT's consumer success
Reuters · Jan 10, 2024