• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 1, 2023

OpenAI launched an API for ChatGPT on Wednesday that will allow any business to build the technology into an app, website, product, or service.

It has prompted companies like Instacart, Snap, Quizlet, and Shopify to integrate the technology into each company’s respective app.

The company also launched Whisper, a speech-to-text model that OpenAI open-sourced in September 2022. The move could prompt more companies to move toward voice search. 

Whisper can be used to transcribe audio into whatever language the audio is in, and translate and transcribe the audio into English.

Instacart plans to integrate OpenAI’s technology ChatGPT into its app to allow consumers to ask questions about food, preparation and get inspirational answers on what and how to prepare the items for a specific occasion.

The company will name the feature Ask Instacart. It will launch later this year.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and product data will combine to generate answers to shopping questions by customers, such as “How do I make halibut without drying out the fish?” The answers will include recipes and ingredients from the more than 1.5 million unique products in the retailer catalogs.

Instacart will rank results the same way it now ranks products in search results, based on relevance and how closely the product maps to what the user queries. The results are personalized preferences based on past orders. 

At launch, this new feature is just for consumers to take advantage of, but the company plans to explore how brands can potentially participate with Ask Instacart in the future — perhaps through sponsored products or ads. 

Instacart has been integrating AI-powered features into the app for “some time,” using the technology to personalize search results or connect available shoppers with information.

Experimentation with ChatGPT is much newer, a company spokesperson said.  

When asked what additional data will this feature give Instacart to target ads to consumers, the spokesperson said that it’s still early days, but the company always looks for more ways to help consumer product goods companies inspire consumers as they browse the virtual aisles.

Instacart is not the only app that has integrated ChatGPT. Snap, Quizlet, and Shopify also are among the early adopters.

Shopify integrated the ChatGPT API into its consumer app Shop to power a shopping assistant that makes personalized recommendations for the app’s more than 100 million users.