What Is AutoGPT?

Recently released, AutoGPT is an even more advanced AI agent than ChatGPT. The name itself hints at the principle on which this model works: When given a task, this AI agent will attempt to resolve the given task by dividing it into subtasks by using various tools, such as the internet, in an automatic loop.

In this article you’ll find out more about this new AI agent, how it works, why it’s revolutionary, and the pros and cons of it.

What Is AutoGPT?

Released on March 30 of this year, AutoGPT has become a social media obsession. It was developed by game creator Toran Bruce Richards, and since its release into the world, social media has been buzzing about this new AI agent. One of the main reasons the internet is exploding over AutoGPT is because it’s giving people a first look into artificial general intelligence (AGI).

As the world is discovering, AI represents a system that is capable of doing tasks while relying on human intelligence. On the other hand, AGI is an AI that can perform tasks using its reasoning, processes, and most importantly intellect. It surpasses human capabilities and works as an autonomous system.

Simply put, AutoGPT uses other AI models, such as GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, utilizes their functionality, and puts it to use for its purposes. While both GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 act autonomously, AutoGPT is an open-source app that interacts with software and services online to perform tasks autonomously.

Why Does AutoGPT Need Other AI Models?

AI models GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 are keys to the functionality of the new AI model AutoGPT. Auto-GPT uses GPT-3.5 and GPT-4, as well as a companion bot, to tell these models what to do. If a user types a request into AutoGPT, a companion bot then uses GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 (along with other programs) to complete all the steps needed to complete the user’s tasks or goals.

What Can AutoGPT Do?

AutoGPT’s autonomous abilities are giving the world an early look at what the future of AI might look like. Its capability comes from the ability to interact with services, software, and apps just like a web browser. Then, when given a certain prompt – about creating a business for example – it can come up with a business strategy that will benefit the user, and even help build a website for that brand.

This is how AutoGPT works in a terminal. Users need to specify up to five ways to achieve their goal, while also describing the agent’s name, role, and objective. It would again use GPT-3.5 for file storage and summarization and GPT-4 for text generation.

If AutoGPT encounters a problem that will prevent it from finishing a given task, it will develop new prompts to determine the problem and what the next steps should be. People are already used to getting human-like responses from AI, but to get the outcome they want, AI models need a human or a user to enter prompts that will execute that outcome properly.

To make AutoGPT even easier to use, new apps have emerged, such as AgentGPT and GodMode. These apps provide an interface that is easy to use, allowing users to directly input what they want to achieve directly on the browser page. AutoGPT can also make phone calls, but for this feature, this AI needs to be connected to speech synthesizers such as ElevenLabs.

Why Is AutoGPT a Powerful Tool?

There are four reasons why AutoGPT is such a powerful tool and has become so popular in a short period.

GPT-3.5 and GPT-4

These two models are one of the reasons why AutoGPT can work autonomously. GPT3.5 and 4 help Auto-GPT with thinking and reasoning. They are the “brain.”

Ability to Learn

AutoGPT has an autonomous iteration feature. This means it can learn from its previous mistakes, access history, and then, by reviewing its work, rework and upgrade previous efforts to achieve better results.

A Memory Storage

This advanced AI is integrated with a vector database which means it can save context and “remember” past experiences. This is also useful for AutoGPT to come up with better results.

Functionality

AutoGPT has a big set of capabilities, which makes it versatile and that’s what makes this AI so powerful and better than previous AI models. It has multiple skills which help solve a range of problems.

The Difference Between ChatGPT and AutoGPT

The first thing that makes AutoGPT better and more advanced than ChatGPT, or any other chat-oriented AI model for that matter, is AutoGPT’s automatization of multistep projects. With ChatGPT for example this requires back-and-forth prompting.

Basic things like writing an email or debugging a code can be done with ChatGPT, but also with AutoGPT. The latter, however, can finish even more advanced tasks with fewer prompts.

When we talk about which AI is better, there is no doubt that AutoGPT will take the title. ChatGPT is an excellent and very capable chatbot, but it has its limits. This AI only gives responses when asked through prompts, but it needs a human touch to complete a given task. On the other hand, AutoGPT, when given a certain command, can throughout the process work autonomously.

When we talk about access, ChatGPT takes the lead there. It is much easier to access, and it’s the better AI if you have a simple task. Even though AutoGPT is available on GitHub, it has requirements that need to be met, including setup, installation, etc.

Limitations and Risks of AutoGPT

AutoGPT is a powerful tool but has limitations, risks, and challenges. For instance, AutoGPT can behave unexpectedly, e.g. getting stuck in its own loop. Then there is the existence of ChaosGPT, a chatbot model designed to generate chaotic or unpredictable outputs, tasked with the goal of destroying humanity. These are just some of the problems with this AI.

High Cost

Since AutoGPT needs to perform several steps to complete a certain task, it uses expensive GPT-4 throughout each step of that process. GPT-4 uses tokens (sections of words) to make prompts. There is a price attached to using tokens, and since you need prompts to start the process, the whole thing may end up being expensive. For example, for a small task, approximately 50 steps are needed to complete it. This will cost approximately $14. This also means the cost will be much higher when a task needs a much greater number of steps.

Inability to Serialize

The development process of AutoGPT is completed when a goal is achieved and all steps, or chain of actions, are finished. However, there is no way to reuse that same chain of action for another task. This means that whenever you want to solve a problem with this AI, you need to start from scratch, even if the problems are similar.

Problem-Solving Capacities Are Limited

Sometimes AutoGPT can get stuck in a loop while trying to solve a problem. Even after many tries and different chains of thoughts, AutoGPT can’t resolve a task adequately. The main reason that this happens lies in the limited functions of GPT-4 which, as we’ve explained, is used by AutoGPT. The inability to decompose will cause problems, as well as reasoning abilities, in GPT-4 which are still inadequate.

The Potential of AutoGPT and AI

The increased usage of AutoGPT will, without a doubt, revolutionize the world we live in. With its expansive features, the question becomes: Will AutoGPT replace people in certain jobs? It surely will have an impact on various industries and the future of work. With GPT-4 as its brain, it’s designed to think like a human, resolve tasks without human input, learn from its own mistakes, and improve the results.

Are you for or against AutoGPT and artificial intelligence? Have you used any of its models, such as ChatGPT? Tell us in the comments section below.