AutoGPT: Unleashing God Mode FOR AI?

As you might have noticed, I've been dabbling with AI recently. However, I wasn't quite ready for what AutoGPT would unleash. And I don't think it was quite ready for me, either. But the promise is tantalising.

First, a quick recap on my experiments with AI du jour, ChatGPT4.

You'll probably have seen that I created an AI maths tutor to help my daughter with her SATs. I also trained it to pick up on my inimitable writing style and made that prompt available for free: in doing so, becoming the world's first open-source copywriter. 

Yes, I've made play-along games based on Countdown and QI (QI:AI?), and a simulator that puts the player in the seat of Tony Wilson's Jaguar as co-owner and chief gob of Factory Records. I'm also working on a 3D wireframe recreation of the Star Wars Arcade: Trench Run game, coded in Swift: caveat, I've never used Swift before.

But, I promise, my main focus here is on how AI can supercharge productivity in the clients I'm working with. So, for example, I've turned process-heavy tasks into prompts that clients run in a flash. And I've used AI to help assess client funding applications before they were submitted, allowing us to fine-tune our response and give us the best chance of success.

The Rise of AutoGPT: A New Era, ALREADY?

Just as I was starting to get my puny noggin around the sheer power of ChatGPT4, all the talk in the nerdosphere turned to a newer incumbent set to make OpenAI's latest release feel as groundbreaking as Microsoft's Clippy (i.e. not). 

Yup, step aside, GPT4; this is AutoGPT's stage now. 

Or at least, it may well be soon.

OK, but what's AutoGPT, I hear you ask, dear reader?

Put simply, it's an open-source AI 'agent' capable of not just turning around scarily accurate responses to an infinite range of requests but of autonomously generating its own tasks and activities based on any prompt you might provide.

You provide the agent with a 'name' (i.e. content marketing expert) and give it a 'role' (i.e. create a plan to generate £2,000 per month in affiliate marketing revenue). From there, you can sit back and watch your AI agent as it sets up a plan to make you a millionaire, Rodders. Cushty.

It's a thing of beauty to watch in motion, too.

ACCESSING AUTOGPT: VIA Godmode

I used a browser-based deployment of the tool, Godmode.space, loaded with some credit from my OpenAI account.

With a name and role assigned, AutoGPT breaks down its work plan into separate tasks, and for each task, it starts to conduct research online and via ChatGPT. Then, as it burns through its actions, you can watch it develop code and text files to achieve your ultimate goal, setting up new jobs when it realises it needs more information.

(To that end, I hope that no one asks this thing to start making paperclips...)

So far, so mad.

I figured I'd try it out on something meaty. Literally.

Putting AutoGPT to the Test: The Burger Joint Challenge

I live just off the high street of a bustling village in South Manchester: a place people often visit because of the many and mainly independent eateries on offer. One of the units recently came on the market after the previous tenant's business failed. A greasy burger joint: there, I said this project was going to be meaty.

Farewell, GBI, Godmode will ensure your replacement has a better chance of success than you did…

I defined the project as follows:

There's an empty retail unit on Wilmslow Road, in Didsbury, Manchester, UK. The unit was previously a small burger restaurant, Gourmet Burger Inc, but this was not successful. Analyse current information on the area's demographics, alongside trends in retail and food, to prepare a business proposal to make the unit a success.

So, when Godmode started this work, I was blown away. It began by setting up three headline tasks, one analysing demographics local to the area, a second researching current trends in the food and retail industry (to identify business opportunities for the unit), and a third preparing a business proposal based on the first two inputs.

As it whirred through tasks, consulting demographic data and constructing its own code to analyse data from multiple sources, I started scrolling through my contacts to find my bank manager.

It began to suggest that, following demographic and trends analysis, a clean-living outlet might be perfect for the spot. I replied, saying we might want a menu for every part of the day, and it threw that into its analysis, too.

"Blimey," I thought, "I'm going to be rich."

Sadly, things broke down from there. My dreams of turning a vacant unit into a thriving restaurant, with no prior food industry experience, unfolded as rapidly as you could say 'procrastinate': because that's exactly what the AI started to do.

The demographic research Godmode had conducted was no longer enough. It needed to fine-tune the code it had created to analyse the research data, and with the code adjusted, it wanted to conduct the research again. Rinse, repeat.

The AI started on tasks that it didn't complete. For example, it suggested we apply for an alcohol license via Manchester City Council. An informed move...but it didn't see it through. Instead, Godmode started another continuous cycle of demographic research and code adjustment: this went on for about ten minutes. 

Finally, my frustrated little sausage fingers bashed out, "Enough already; just give me the goddam plan!" 

And here it is:

Based on our analysis of the target audience and the current food retail industry trends, it may be useful to have a fast-casual burger restaurant serving high-quality burgers at an affordable price point. The restaurant could offer a variety of burgers, including vegetarian and gluten-free options, and provide unique sauce options to differentiate itself from other fast-food chains. 

So, after all that AI-driven research and analysis, the plan was to restart the business that had just failed in the same unit. Genius.

AutoGPT's Limitations and the Future of AI

But let's not discount this tech yet. Part of the challenge lies in AutoGPT's ability - or lack thereof - to extract data from websites optimised for SEO and general readability. As AIs increasingly scrape real-time data (remember, GPT4 has only been trained on data up until 2021), this will change. 

And when it does, I think we truly will start to unleash 'God Mode' in our AI platforms.