WhatsApp ChatGPT Integration via GitHub Project Lets Users Add AI to Conversations: Details

WhatsApp is arguably the world’s most popular messaging service, and the Meta-owned messaging service also offers a version of the app for businesses that supports basic automated responses. On the other hand, ChatGPT, the wildly popular chatbot from San Francisco startup OpenAI has seen users cross the 100 million mark in record time. While there are no officially supported methods of integrating the chatbot with the messaging service, a GitHub project allows users to allow the ChatGPT to work with WhatsApp. 

Developer Daniel Gross has developed an open source integration called WhatsApp-GPT, which is hosted on GitHub. Written in Python and the Go programming language (Golang), the service must be run via the terminal (command line) and requires a WhatsApp account registered with a phone number. The chatbot will be run in a separate browser window in order to respond to chats, according to the developer. 

The readme file for the project states that users must run two scripts, one in Golang and a sever script in Python. They will also be able to test a “multichat” script to “watch to ChatGPTs talk to each other”, according to the project’s developer. 

It is worth noting that WhatsApp does not currently support any third-party integrations with OpenAI’s ChatGPT service. Using unofficial and unsupported methods to access the service may also be a violation of the company’s terms of service. WhatsApp previously warned companies claiming to offer bulk messaging capabilities to cease operations. 

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) is working on a WhatsApp-based chatbot that uses information from ChatGPT to answer queries, according to a report by The Indian Express. The chatbot, developed by a team called Bhashini, will allow users to send in queries using voice notes and receive a voice-based response generated by OpenAI’s chatbot, as per the report. 

Microsoft is also previewing access to a revamped version of Bing that allows users to access an AI-powered version of the search engine, based on OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 technology. Gadgets 360 recently tested the chatbot to see how it responded to “conversational” questions. The company has, however, set a limit of five consecutive queries after some users reported that extended conversations with the chatbot resulted in disparaging responses. The company is expected to provide access to the new Bing in the coming weeks.