OpenAI 最新功能直指传统应用商店模式

周二 OpenAI Dev Day 的焦点或许是其名为 Dots 的 Agent 助手，或是其新 AI 模型，但这些公告结合起来，指向了一个更大的计划：颠覆传统应用商店模式。综合来看，OpenAI 今日的公告正把 ChatGPT 本身变成一个可供人类和 Agent 发现、启动并使用软件的场所。

此外，OpenAI 还推出了一种方式，让用户能够携带自己的 ChatGPT 身份，同时在第三方应用中使用其现有的 AI 用量额度。

这并不是 OpenAI 首次试验应用如何在其熟悉的聊天机器人界面中运行，但当前的愿景比以往更加完整。

首先，该公司正将 ChatGPT 本身转变为启动应用的界面。OpenAI 表示，这款聊天机器人如今拥有 12 亿周活跃用户，但它尚未充分发挥作为应用发现机制的潜力，帮助用户寻找并使用可与 AI 协同工作的应用。

为改变这一状况，当 ChatGPT 识别出某一特定应用可帮助用户完成任务时，它将开始在对话过程中推荐应用。随后，用户可以连接该应用，并直接在 ChatGPT 中开始使用。

这一能力也得益于 ChatGPT 插件架构的扩展，该架构现已支持扩展程序。

这让应用开发者可以构建交互式面板，用户能够在与 ChatGPT 对话时使用其工具。实质上，这会将用户此前通过网页、原生桌面应用或移动应用使用的应用和服务，转化为可直接在 ChatGPT 内操作的体验。

加入该系统的开发者可以通过 ChatGPT 构建其应用的 AI 原生版本，方式与其通过开放网络或移动应用商店构建应用相似。随着越来越多的发现行为发生在 AI 聊天中，这是一个难以忽视的分发渠道。

图片来源： OpenAI

用户也有动力使用这一渠道，因为“Sign in with ChatGPT”将允许他们携带自己的 AI 用量额度。（OpenAI 表示，这项计划目前有 16 个首发合作伙伴，包括 Cognition 的 Devin、Notion、Vercel、T3、OpenClaw 和 Dactyl，并计划很快增加更多合作伙伴。）

在 OpenAI Dev Day 活动的一场演示中，该公司展示了其自家的新会议应用如何在 ChatGPT 内运行，并显示用户日历中的即将举行的会议。用户可在此轻松选择让 AI 记录会议笔记，并在会议结束后收到后续事项摘要。

在另一个例子中，用户可通过 Figma 和 Adobe 等面向设计的应用，对当前项目进行修改，或使用原本需要独立应用才能使用的特定功能。

这些应用可以在 ChatGPT 现可生成的轻量级网站中与他人分享，例如工作同事。用户的同事可在这些 ChatGPT 网站中使用自己的凭据和权限登录应用，从而获得为其个性化的软件体验。

OpenAI 还谈到了开发者提交插件以供审核的流程改进——可以将其视为 OpenAI 版本的 Apple App Review 流程。现在，开发者将能够跟踪审核状态、查看需要修复的问题、请求人工审核，并更新插件的工具，而无须从头重新提交整个申请。

该公司还宣布推出新的企业应用市场，合作伙伴可以在其中推广其服务。OpenAI 表示，OpenAI Marketplace 上线时已有超过 30 家合作伙伴通过该市场提供应用，包括 Adobe、Figma、Sierra、Decagon、HubSpot、Salesforce、ServiceNow、Harvey、Legora、Palo Alto Networks、CrowdStrike、Baseten 等。符合条件的客户可将其部分 OpenAI 合约承诺额度用于经批准的合作伙伴软件。

除将 ChatGPT 变成一个让用户直接连接应用的应用发现工具外，OpenAI 对 Agent 的投入也在温和地推动用户进入一个新时代：他们不必再过多思考该使用哪款应用或为何使用，而是依赖 AI Agent 的建议。

随着其名为 Dots 的自主 AI Agent推出，Agent 将代替用户浏览网页，并在自己的云端基础设施中执行需要完成的任务。每个 Dot 都拥有自己的云端计算机和浏览器，也可以使用已连接的应用。这与旧模式形成对比：过去，想管理某类项目——例如搭建网站或协调会议日历——的用户，必须在计算机或手机上下载不同应用才能完成这些工作。

截图图片来源： OpenAI

如今，用户只需告诉 AI Agent 希望完成什么工作，它就会直接替用户执行。在某些情况下，Agent 的工作可能需要访问另一种 AI 模型或特定应用。但这将由 Agent 主动带给用户，而不再是用户亲自寻找完成任务所需的特定工具。

正如 OpenAI 所解释的，Dots 将能够连接到其目前已拥有超过 4,000 款应用的生态系统。

此外，Dots 还可以主动行动，例如介入并为项目或漏洞提供帮助，或处理用户遗忘的任务——但所有操作都将在获得用户批准后进行。Dots 将使用以只读模式连接的应用，在后台开展 OpenAI 所称的“主动研究”（proactive research），但用户仍将掌控它们所采取的行动。

这一系统可为应用开发商提供另一种触达客户的方式，使其不必完全依赖 Apple 和 Google 的应用商店。例如，用户可以通过应用开发商的网站订阅服务，再将该账户连接至 ChatGPT 或 Codex，供其 Agent 使用。不过，OpenAI 尚未表示这些功能将取消单独的第三方订阅费用或其他收费。

值得注意的是，OpenAI 今日并未预告这方面的任何计划，而是专注于构建可对抗应用商店模式的发现、分发和界面组件，以及身份层和共享用户现有 ChatGPT AI 用量额度的机制。该公司周二没有公布可与传统应用商店经济层相媲美的计费或收入分成系统计划。

The focus of OpenAI’s Dev Day on Tuesday may have been on its agentic assistants known as Dots, or its new AI models, but combined, the AI company’s announcements pointed towards a bigger plan: a disruption of the traditional app store model. Taken together, today’s announcements turn ChatGPT itself into the place where software can be discovered, launched, and used by people and agents alike.

In addition, OpenAI introduced a way for people to bring their ChatGPT identity with them, while also allowing them to use their existing AI allowance in third-party apps.

This isn’t the first time OpenAI has experimented with how apps could operate within its familiar chatbot interface, but the current vision feels more fleshed out than before.

For starters, the company is turning ChatGPT itself into a surface for launching apps. The chatbot, which the company says now has 1.2 billion weekly users, has yet to fully capitalize on its potential as a discovery mechanism for finding and using apps that work with AI.

To change that, ChatGPT will begin to make app suggestions within the flow of conversation when it recognizes that a particular app could help the user complete their task. From there, the user will be able to connect the app and begin using it directly within ChatGPT.

This is also aided by the expansion of ChatGPT’s plugin architecture, which now supports extensions.

This allows app developers to build interactive panels where users can work with their tools while they’re chatting with ChatGPT. This essentially turns the apps and services that users would have previously used via the web or through a native desktop or mobile app into something that’s operated directly within ChatGPT.

Developers that sign on with the system can build AI-native versions of their apps through ChatGPT, the same way they would through the open web or a mobile app store. As more and more discovery happens through AI chat, it’s a distribution channel that’s hard to pass up.

Image Credits: OpenAI

Users get an incentive to use that channel too, because “Sign in with ChatGPT” will let them bring their AI allowance with them. (OpenAI has 16 launch partners on this effort, including Cognition’s Devin, Notion, Vercel, T3, OpenClaw, and Dactyl, but plans to add more soon, it says.)

In a demo at OpenAI’s Dev Day event, the company showed off how its own new meeting app could work inside ChatGPT, showing upcoming meetings from the user’s calendar. Here, the user could easily choose to use AI to take meeting notes, then receive a summary of follow-up items when the meeting wrapped.

In another example, users would work with design-focused apps like those from Figma and Adobe to work on revisions of their current project or use a particular feature that would have otherwise required a standalone app.

The apps can be shared with others, like work colleagues, in the lightweight websites ChatGPT now produces. From these ChatGPT sites, a user’s coworkers could sign in to the app with their own credentials and permissions, making the software experience personalized to them.

OpenAI also talked about improvements to how developers submit plugins for review — OpenAI’s version of Apple’s App Review process, if you will. Now, developers will be able to track their review, see what needs to be fixed, request a human review, and update their plugin’s tools without starting their whole submission over.

The company also announced a new enterprise app marketplace where partners can market their services. At launch, there are some 30-plus partners offering their app through the OpenAI Marketplace, including Adobe, Figma, Sierra, Decagon, HubSpot, Salesforce, ServiceNow, Harvey, Legora, Palo Alto Networks, CrowdStrike, Baseten, and others. Eligible customers can apply part of their OpenAI commitment toward approved partner software, OpenAI said.

Beyond turning ChatGPT into an app discovery tool where users connect with apps directly, OpenAI’s embrace of agents is gently pushing users into a new era where they don’t have to think as much about which app to use or why, relying instead on their AI agents’ suggestions.

With the launch of its autonomous AI agents known as Dots, agents will navigate the web for you, executing the tasks that need to be done in their own cloud infrastructure. Each Dot has its own cloud computer and browser, and can also use connected apps. Compare this to the old model, where users who wanted to manage some type of project — like building a website or coordinating a meeting calendar — would have to download different apps to their computer or phone to make that happen.

ScreenshotImage Credits: OpenAI

Now, users will instead tell an AI agent what they want to have done, and it will simply do it for them. In some cases, the agent’s work may require access to another AI model or a particular application. But this is something the agent may bring to the user, rather than the other way around — where the user is the one to go out and seek the particular tool for the job.

As OpenAI explains, the Dots will be able to connect to its ecosystem of now over 4,000 apps.

What’s more, the Dots can be proactive, perhaps jumping in to offer help with a project or bug, or handling a task the user forgot — but all done with the user’s approval. The Dots will perform what OpenAI calls “proactive research” in the background using connected apps in a read-only mode, but users would still have control over the actions they take.

This system could give app makers another way to reach customers outside of Apple and Google’s app stores. For instance, users could subscribe to a service through the app maker’s website, then connect that account to ChatGPT or Codex for their agent to use. OpenAI has not said, however, that these features would eliminate the need for separate third-party subscriptions or other charges.

Notably, OpenAI didn’t tease any plans on this front today, instead focusing on how it’s building the discovery, distribution, and interface pieces to counter the app store model, along with an identity layer and a mechanism for sharing a user’s existing ChatGPT AI allowance. It did not announce plans Tuesday for a billing or revenue-sharing system that’s comparable to the economic layer of traditional app stores.