OpenAI Sells the Future 💸🌍

👀 TLDR:

In this week’s What’s Appening, we hail the opening of the GPT Store. Well, it’s not quite a store because apart from OpenAI, no one’s getting paid, yet. It’s more like a directory of Custom GPTs, but that shouldn’t detract from this landmark moment. OpenAI has just crowdsourced the most incredible set of functions from around the globe, and we use our crystal ball to imagine what’s next. Elsewhere, we still had time to check out all the weird and wonderful gadgets from CES 2024, including the ultra-intriguing Rabbit r1 device. Our Stat of the Week looks at how Peacock’s huge spend on streaming an NFL game paid dividends. And What’s dAppening reports on X removing support for NFT profile pictures. Oh, and be sure to check out the Meanwhile section, as we have launched yet another custom-built GPT for you to see for yourself.

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Takes 🎬

🤖🛒 OpenAI – GPT Store Opens for Business, And the Implications Are Staggering

It’s not exactly a store just yet, as OpenAI hasn’t added the monetization element for those developing GPTs. While OpenAI get paid via subscriptions, none of the GPT creators are getting paid anytime soon (though OpenAI have promised it will happen!). It should be viewed more as a global directory for task-specific GPTs. Pull back the curtain though and there’s more to behold. As Paul pointed out, OpenAI has crowdsourced the most valuable repository for microservices on the planet, and that’s going to be the game-changer. Over 3 million GPTs have been created, including a whole host by 3Advance (check out our latest GPT below). Mimicking Steve Jobs in 2008, we can now say “there’s a GPT for that”! The scale of the GPT store is staggering, and it’s going to have huge implications for the development of apps, platforms, integrations, and just about everything else. It puts OpenAI at the forefront of a brand-new industry – light-years ahead of other Big Tech companies, perhaps with the exception of its partner, Microsoft. Once these GPTs are made available to the general public through APIs, we’ll be able to integrate any of these ever growing functions quickly and easily, super-powering every application that gets developed. We might sound hyperbolic in our assessment, but we don’t think the media at large has grasped what is unfolding here. This is going to change everything.  #GPTStoreOpens Read more here.

💡🆕 CES 2024 – Superstar Car DJs, Robots, Disappearing TVs AR, and an AI Catflap

The 2024 Consumer Electrics Show took place last week, giving us a glimpse of all the gadgets of the future, with a few wacky things thrown in for good measure. So, what caught our eye? As you might imagine, a lot of AI products were on show, including AI catflaps that stop your furry felines from bringing anything unwanted through the door. There were “disappearing televisions” from LG, and AI car DJs from Honda, as well as AR headwear from Sony and Xreal. But the biggest talking point was Rabbit r1, an AI (of course) gadget that lets you control your smartphone apps remotely.  Some see it as a game-changer, a disruptor of the iOS/Android model of screen-staring. Paul shared some thoughts on Rabbit r1 on LinkedIn, which may give you an indication of why this could be the most important gadget from the 1400 startups presenting at CES 2024. #CES2024 Read more here.

🗞️ The Best of the Rest: Other News in Brief

🥇 Microsoft Becomes the World’s Most Valuable Company. File this under predictable. Microsoft, buoyed by the AI boom and OpenAI partnership, has overtaken Apple as the world’s biggest company by market cap. Get the deets right here.

🚽 The Curious Case of the Flush App. An intriguing app caught our eye at CES 2024 – Flush – which lets businesses like coffee shops charge for bathroom use. What do you think, is it a loo-dicrous idea? Find out more about it here.

🔋 AI Discovers New Material for Batteries. AI isn’t all about chatbots and catflaps, you know. Researchers used the tech to synthesize a completely new material, which could replace lithium in batteries. More details here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: 28M Viewers

🏈📺 Peacock – NFL Streaming Gamble Pays Off as App Downloads Surge

How do you get your app to number one in the App Store? Simple. Negotiate a $110 million deal with the NFL for exclusive rights to show the AFC Wild Card game between the Chiefs and Dolphins, then make it a streaming-only exclusive on your app. Heads were turned when Peacock-owner NBC paid that huge wad of money back in May for Saturday’s Wild Card game, not even knowing who the teams would be, but it paid off. The game, which the Chiefs won 26-7, set the all-time record for streaming views in the United States, peaking at 28 million, and it also rocketed the Peacock app to number one in the App Store. #PeacockNFL Read more here.

🕸️ What’s dAppening?

👋🖼️ NFTs – Twitter/X Quietly Removes Support for NFT Profile Pics

X has taken the decision to remove support for NFT profile pictures. The feature, first launched in July 2022, would feature special hexagons around the PFP to show that they were legit NFTs. Yes, these profiles were often the butt of jokes for ‘normies’ who never bought into the idea of NFTs in the first place, yet they served an important purpose for the web3 community on X, not least helping identify scam accounts. X didn’t provide much info on why it made the move, but there is a theory floating around that it’s to pave the way for NFTs exclusive to X, perhaps in a similar vein to Reddit’s (hugely successful) NFT avatar feature. Interestingly, the removal of support comes at a time when the NFT market is picking up again. #XEndsNFTSupport Read more here.

Meanwhile at 3Advance...

The GPT Store is open, and we’ve got another Custom GPT for you to try! This one is super simple, but super useful too. Now it’s all good and well when your flight reservation includes a calendar link, but even then it sometimes screws up the timezone. So, we created “Add to Calendar”, a GPT for quickly adding reservations or schedules to Google Calendar. It’s as simple as taking a screenshot (that’s CMD+Shift+4 on your Mac), uploading an image/PDF, or you can just copy and paste some text. It’s not perfect, it sometimes gets mixed up, and maybe you’ve got another way to do this, but it certainly shows off how ChatGPT and CustomGPTs can help simplify little tasks. You can check it out here - be sure to tell us what you think!

Have you got any great ideas for a Custom GPT, or you found a GPT that should be an app? If so, let us know! We love this stuff, and we’d be delighted to help you make it happen.

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