What is Auto-GPT and why is it important?

Silicon Valley’s quest to automate everything is relentless, which explains its latest obsession: Auto-GPT.

Essentially, Auto-GPT uses the versatility of OpenAI’s latest AI models to interact with software and online services, allowing it to “autonomously” perform tasks like X and Y. But as we learn with large language patterns, this ability seems to be as wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle.

Auto-GPT – which you may have seen exploding on social media lately – is an open-source application created by Toran game developer Bruce Richards which uses OpenAI’s text generation models, mainly GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, to act “autonomously”.

There is no magic in this autonomy. Auto-GPT simply handles follow-ups from an initial prompt to OpenAI models, asking and responding to them until a task is complete.

Auto-GPT, basically, is GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 paired with a companion bot that tells GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 what to do. A user tells Auto-GPT what their goal is and the bot, in turn, uses GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 and multiple programs to perform every step necessary to achieve their goal.

What makes Auto-GPT reasonably capable is its ability to interact with online and local applications, software, and services, like web browsers and word processors. For example, if you receive a prompt such as “help me grow my flower business”, Auto-GPT may develop a somewhat plausible advertising strategy and create a basic website.

As Joe Koen, a software developer who experimented with Auto-GPT, explained to TechCrunch via email, Auto-GPT essentially automates multi-step projects that would have required going back and forth with an AI model oriented chatbot like, for example, OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“Auto-GPT defines an agent that communicates with OpenAI’s API,” Koen said. “The purpose of this agent is to execute a variety of commands that the AI ​​generates in response to agent requests. The user is prompted to enter to specify the role and goals of the AI ​​before the agent begins executing commands. »

In a terminal, users describe the name, role, and purpose of the Auto-GPT agent and specify up to five ways to achieve that goal. For example:

• Name: Smartphone-GPT
• Role: An AI designed to find the best smartphone
• Objective: Find the best smartphones on the market
• Objective 1: Do market research for different smartphones on the market today
• Objective 2: Get the top five smartphones and list their pros and cons

Behind the scenes, Auto-GPT relies on features like memory management to perform tasks, as well as GPT-4 and GPT-3.5 for text generation, file storage, and summarization.

Auto-GPT can also be connected to voice synthesizers, such as the one from ElevenLabs, in order to be able to “make” telephone calls, for example.

Auto-GPT is publicly available on GitHub, but it requires setup and know-how to get up and running. To use it, Auto-GPT must be installed in a development environment like Docker, and it must be registered with an API key from OpenAI — which requires a paid OpenAI account.

It might be worth it – although the jury is out on that. Early adopters used Auto-GPT to take on the kinds of mundane tasks best delegated to a bot. For example, Auto-GPT can handle things like debugging code and writing an email or more advanced things like creating a business plan for a new startup.

“If Auto-GPT encounters obstacles or an inability to complete the task, it will develop new prompts to help it navigate the situation and determine appropriate next steps,” said Adnan Masood, the chief architect of UST, a technology consulting firm. TechCrunch in an email. “Big language models excel at generating human-like responses, but rely on prompts and user interactions to deliver the desired results. In contrast, Auto-GPT leverages the advanced API capabilities of ‘OpenAI to operate independently without user intervention.’

In recent weeks, new apps have appeared to make Auto-GPT even easier to use, such as AgentGPT and GodMode, which provide a simple interface where users can type in what they want to accomplish directly on a browser page. Note that, like Agent-GPT, both require an API key from OpenAI to unlock their full capabilities.

Like any powerful tool, however, Auto-GPT has its limitations and risks.

Depending on the purpose provided by the tool, Auto-GPT can behave in very…unexpected ways. A Reddit user claims that given a budget of $100 to spend on a server instance, Auto-GPT created a wiki page about chats, exploited a flaw in the instance to gain admin-level access and took over the Python environment it was running in – then “killed” itself.

There’s also ChaosGPT, a modified version of Auto-GPT loaded with goals like “destroy humanity” and “establish world domination.” Unsurprisingly, ChaosGPT didn’t come close to bringing on the robot apocalypse – but it did tweet unflatteringly about humanity.

However, the unforeseen glitches that can arise in otherwise perfectly normal scenarios are arguably more dangerous than Auto-GPT attempting to “destroy humanity”. Because it’s built on OpenAI’s language models — models that, like all language models, are subject to inaccuracies — it can make mistakes.

It’s not the only problem. After successfully completing a task, Auto-GPT usually doesn’t remember how to run it for later use, and even when it does, it often doesn’t remember to use the program. Auto-GPT also struggles to effectively break down complex tasks into simpler subtasks and struggles to understand how different goals overlap.

“Auto-GPT exemplifies the power and unknown risks of generative AI,” Clara Shih, CEO of Salesforce’s Service Cloud and Auto-GPT enthusiast, said via email. “For enterprises, it is particularly important to include a human approach in the loop when developing and using generative AI technologies like Auto-GPT.”