Ever since the ChatGPT plugins arrived a few weeks ago, it’s been a free buffet of new ways to use the OpenAI chatbot. There are over 70 plugins that enhance the capabilities of ChatGPT with a wide range of uses. Some of Mashable’s favorites include a Spotify plugin that creates custom playlists, tools for scraping and summarizing web page content from a URL link, and denoising real estate listings on sites like Zillow.
But among the useful ChatGPT plugins, there are some glitches. They may not be as useful as they claim based on their descriptions, or may not add much value to the existing capabilities of ChatGPT. Some may be interesting in theory, but in reality, they are not ready for prime time. These are the ones you should skip for now.
5 ChatGPT plugins that do what they promise
ChatWithVideo
The ChatWithVideo plugin claims to use information and metadata from a video to provide a summary, analyze its content, and then answer questions about the video, such as “What are people saying in the comments?” This seemed useful for recapping long YouTube videos or quickly learning about commenter reactions, but it’s actually quite limited. The first try was the three-hour Senate hearing with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, but ChatWithVideo told me there was a problem loading it because it was too long. So much for a useful summary.
The second attempt was a clip from an interview with actor Matthew Macfadyen on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. ChatWithVideo successfully summarized this short video, but when asked what the comments were saying, he couldn’t provide an answer because ChatGPT’s knowledge cutoff is September 2021. That’s a bit on ChatGPT because ChatWithVideo uses their data training, but still not a great look for the plugin
ChatWithVideo was only half as helpful.
Credit: Screenshot/OpenAI
Algorithm
As The Sims either animal crossing, the Algorithma addon is a simulation game that builds a journey for your character as you follow through with different directions. After creating a simple baby character, Algorithma provided four options for what to do next: play with toys, try to say a first word, crawl around the house, or take a nap. Choosing one of these options resulted in an increase in happiness, health, appearance, or intelligence. The first one or two follow-ups were fun, but they quickly got boring.
It felt more like using one of those Tamagotchis from the 90s rather than interacting with advanced intelligence. It also became clear that the best part of playing a simulation game is seeing the options and results visually, but because the Algorithma plugin only provides updates in the form of text, it’s not very appealing. I quickly abandoned my childishness and started looking for other plugins.
There are no images that take away from the fun of a simulation game.
Credit: Screenshot/OpenAI
robberyadvertisement
ChatGPT has been touted as an advertising tool for writing snappy, conversational copy. RoboAd does this by analyzing the content of an e-commerce site and generating advertisements for the products it sells. This is one of those examples of a plugin that doesn’t really add much value to ChatGPT, since it’s already so easy to generate ad copy without a plugin.
With iced coffee in mind, I logged on to the Dunkin Donuts website to see what kind of ads it would generate. The result was a line of generic text for each product that took longer to generate than a copywriter could have written, ie, “Add delicious flavor to your coffee with Dunkin’ Creamer!”
For a plugin that claims to write “compelling headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action that are tailored to the brand and specific product or service,” this one fell well short of the mark.
This ad copy is minimal at best.
Credit: Screenshots/OpenAI
Ambition
The Ambition plugin is one that falls into the “let me Google that for you” category. The plugin that was created by job listings site RemoteAmbition basically just pulls current job listings based on your criteria, except not as comprehensively as a Google search or larger sites like Indeed. A query for a real estate agent in New York returned only five results. According to RemoteAmbition website(opens in a new tab)soon you’ll be able to import your resume into ChatGPT, which would definitely make the plugin more useful, but for now, you’re better off with a search engine.
Wake us up when the job listing plugin does more than a Google search.
Credit: Screenshot/OpenAI
PortfolioPilot
PortfolioPilot collects information on specific stocks and economic trends, which is a bit worrying since it’s well established that ChatGPT can be inaccurate and misleading, but the main red flag is that it makes “practical recommendations on how to improve your portfolio” and can “automatically improve your portfolio by applying the best recommendation based on your risk profile” if you share your portfolio with him.
There are known risks of sharing personal or confidential information with ChatGPT. An error revealed the user’s payment information, and unless you opt out, your information is used to improve the model. Sharing your investment portfolio with a plugin that uses ChatGPT’s large language model for all of the above reasons seems like a bad idea.
This screams “red flag”.
Credit: Screenshot/OpenAI
