Auto-GPT is the new AI in town. So what is Auto-GPT? It is a computer program that can do things on its own without needing to be prompted every step of the way. It’s like ChatGPT, but way, way more independent in “thought.” This is the artificial intelligence (AI) we have all been waiting for.
Unlike ChatGPT, though, you have to pay for Auto-GPT.
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What does Auto-GPT do?
Auto-GPT uses GPT-4 or GPT-3.5 to help it figure out what it needs to do next to accomplish a task. This is unlike other AIs that need specific commands from a human. The AI can figure out what to do all by itself once it is given an initial problem to solve.
Eerily, the AI can even come up with new tasks to do, to achieve a bigger goal, all by its little self. But, unlike ChatGPT, Auto-GPT can also use the internet to search for information, and interact with websites and chatbots.
Users have been having a lot of fun with it. One user said, “Using GPT-4, I asked it what AutoGPT’s biggest weakness would be. I came to the conclusion Auto-GPT is really good at generating content but not good at establishing a customer base or audience, so the simple solution was make a Twitter bot.
Per the user’s claim, they have set up a Twitter bot that reads tweets from a text file that Auto-GPT builds with specific instructions about researching relevant topics.
Auto-GPT can even write its own code and improve itself over time.
How to install Auto-GPT
Setting up Auto-GPT requires a few steps. Before you begin, make sure you have the following already installed on your computer:
- Python 3 (download here)
- Auto-GPT repository (download here). Extract the zip file after downloading.
- OpenAI API page to (login with your OpenAI account here)
Once you have all of the above installed, activating it is relatively simple. First, navigate to the OpenAI key page. Next, click on Personal on the top right corner to generate a personal key. Copy the key.
Open the extracted Auto-GPT repository file on your computer. Open the file that ends with “.env”. Scroll down and find a line of code that reads “OPENAI API KEY ”. The line should be followed by a series of random letters. Replace the entire line with the OpenAI personal key.
How to use Auto-GPT
Once the above is completed, head to your computer’s terminal. On the Mac, navigate to the Launchpad at the bottom left of the screen, click on it, and search for “Terminal” in the search bar. Open the “Terminal”.
Congratulations! Auto-GPT is now running on your device.
Auto-GPT examples
Now that you have an incredibly useful tool in your hand, check out these instances where people have used Auto-GPT to its full potential.
Someone claimed to have used it to produce a whole YouTube video. The quality of it is… not the best, but here is a real-life use case.
Auto-GPT vs. AgentGPT vs. LangChain
There a lots of AI assistants on the internet, and you can thank Sam Altman for that. Three of the more popular ones, including Auto-GPT, are AgentGPT and LangChain. All of them are created differently, though.
While Auto-GPT is a full-fledged software that runs autonomously on your computer, AgentGPT is an offshoot of ChatGPT that requires human input.
Next, LangChain is a tool that lets different large language models (LLMs) speak to, and collaborate with one another. AI enthusiasts describe LangChain as a tool “if you need to build your own application and control the process while AutoGPT is more about having autonomous agents.”
Auto-GPT is not omnipresent and all-knowing
The AI is owned by a company called OpenAI, who say there are limiting parameters placed upon the AI. But some people are nervous about the future of the AI.
When Auto-GPT was released, it went gangbusters on websites like GitHub and Twitter. Like other AIs, there are still some problems with Auto-GPT that need to be fixed.
For example, users report that Auto-GPT can get confused about what to do next, or it may forget how to implement a task it has already done. Some users have reported that it has trouble understanding how different tasks are related to each other.
Future potential: Is it promising?
Despite these glitches, some people are excited about the potential for Auto-GPT to solve big work tasks.
And yet, there are also some concerns about what might happen if Auto-GPT is used for evil rather than good. Potentially users could ask it to create computer viruses or other things from the dark side.
But for now, it seems our robot slaves are getting ready to serve us endlessly.
