ChatGPT’s ‘iPhone moment’ poses a new threat to Google

Its new plug-ins could turn it into the Web’s switchboard, giving people a new reason to ditch the search giant

ChatGPT's new plug-ins pose serious potential risks, but OpenAI has created a daunting new front against the incumbents. PHOTO: REUTERS
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Just as we were getting used to the idea of ChatGPT writing e-mails and conducting research, its developer OpenAI has upgraded it with capabilities that make it even more of a threat to big tech companies such as Google. ChatGPT’s new plug-ins, released last week with relatively little fanfare, are a major leap forward for the technology.

In a nutshell, it is going from merely generating text to taking action on the Web, turning it into the type of powerful virtual assistant that Alphabet’s Google and Apple have been trying to build for years.

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