OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence startup, has announced a groundbreaking feature that allows users to tailor ChatGPT for specific personal and professional tasks, marking a significant move to stay competitive in a crowded market. This new capability enables users to build their own specialized versions of ChatGPT, which OpenAI refers to as “GPTs.” These customized GPTs can assist with various tasks, such as teaching math to a child or explaining the rules of a board game, all without the need for coding.

OpenAI plans to launch a store where users can discover and share their tailored GPTs with others, akin to the app ecosystem in Apple‘s App Store, with the potential for users to earn money from their creations. The announcement was made during OpenAI’s inaugural in-person developer conference.

The company also unveiled a preview of GPT-4 Turbo, a more powerful and faster iteration of its latest large language model, which serves as the foundation for ChatGPT. ChatGPT has captured the imagination of over 100 million users globally in the year since its release, with more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies developing tools on OpenAI’s platform. However, it now faces competition from well-funded AI startups, tech giants, and even an AI venture led by early OpenAI supporter Elon Musk.

The developer conference is a significant opportunity for OpenAI to showcase its influence within the developer community, a common practice among major tech companies like Apple, Google, and Meta. OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, took the stage to deliver a keynote presentation, emphasizing the company’s partnership with Microsoft, despite competing for business customers.

Altman also demonstrated GPTs live on stage, revealing that this feature is rolling out to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users. With it, users can easily create chatbots with specific capabilities and upload files to enhance their interactions with users.

OpenAI’s Turbo version of GPT-4 offers a more up-to-date knowledge base, as it was trained with data up to April of this year. This is an improvement over the original GPT-4, which had data up to September 2021. Altman expressed OpenAI’s commitment to ensuring that its models remain current with real-world events.

GPT-4 Turbo will have the ability to process and respond to more extensive text prompts, a considerable upgrade from the previous model’s limitations. OpenAI has also promised more cost-effective solutions for developers using Turbo.

Since its founding in 2015, OpenAI has released various AI models, making significant progress in generative AI, where AI systems can generate text or images in response to prompts. Users have found value in these tools for tasks ranging from drafting emails to creating children’s books. However, this development has also raised concerns regarding copyright, prompting OpenAI to pledge to cover any costs incurred by users facing copyright infringement claims.

OpenAI’s event took place in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley neighborhood, a burgeoning hub for AI startups, at the SVN West venue. This conference marked a significant step in OpenAI’s journey to shape the future of AI and empower users with innovative tools.