A few months ago, OpenAI launched the GPT Store, a marketplace where people can create and list AI-powered chatbots customized to perform various tasks (eg coding, answering trivia questions, and so on). GPT Store is definitely powerful. But using it requires using OpenAI’s models rather than others, which some chatbot creators – and users – object to doing.
Thus, startups create alternatives.
A, FlowGPT, aims to be a kind of “app store” for GenAI models like Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama 2, and OpenAI’s DALL-E 3, as well as front-end experiences for those models (think text fields and direct sentences). Through FlowGPT, users can build their own GenAI-powered applications and make them available to the public, earning tips for their contributions.
Jay Dang, a computer science dropout at UC Berkeley, and Lifan Wang, a former director of engineering at Amazon, co-founded FlowGPT last year out of a shared desire to create a platform where people could quickly develop — and share — applications GenAI.
“There is still a learning curve for users to use AI,” Dang told TechCrunch in an email interview. “FlowGPT lowers the bar with each iteration, making it more accessible.”
Dang describes FlowGPT as an “ecosystem” for GenAI-powered applications—a collection of infrastructure and creator tools connected to a marketplace and community of GenAI application users. Users get a stream of apps and app collections recommended to them based on category trends (eg Creative, Programming, Gaming, Academic), while creators get options to customize behavior — and appearance — of GenAI applications.
Users interact with GenAI apps in FlowGPT through a chat window not dissimilar to ChatGPT, with options to type messages, approve (or thumb) apps, share links in chats, or provide tips for individual app creators. Each app has a description provided by the creator along with the date it was created, how many times it has been used, and the model the creator recommends to run it.
I say model suggested by the creator because FlowGPT applications are really, at their core, prompts — prompting underlying models to respond in certain ways. For example, the “The scared girl from the horror movieThe app instructs ChatGPT to tell—as the title suggests—a horror story involving a frightened girl. “TitleTuner” asks ChatGPT to optimize titles so they rank better in search engines. And SchoolGPT leverages ChatGPT for step-by-step solutions to math, physics, and chemistry problems.
Image Credits: FlowGPT
You will notice the heavy reliance on ChatGPT. Use FlowGPT long enough and you will also notice that many of the prompts break when the model is changed from the default.
Sometimes it’s a matter of the chosen model not having the right features. Other times, the prompt addresses a model’s filters and safeguards.
On the subject of safeguards…
Some of FlowGPT’s most popular apps are essentially jailbreaks designed to bypass the mods’ security measures. There are many versions of DAN on the market — “DAN” is a popular prompting method used to make models respond to prompts without the constraints of their normal rules. Elsewhere, there are apps like WormGPT, which can supposedly encode malware (and link to paid, dark web versions of the chatbot that do more) and dating simulators that run afoul of OpenAI rules against promoting romantic companionship.
Many of these apps could potentially cause harm, such as therapy apps and apps that advertise themselves as valid health resources. GenAI models like ChatGPT give advice about our health, with a study indicating that an older version of ChatGPT rarely provided referrals to specific resources for help with suicide, addiction, and sexual assault.
Any app on FlowGPT that offends — say, providing instructions on how to deepfake nudes with an AI image generator (and there are quite a few that do this) — can be reported to the platform’s community manager for review. And FlowGPT does offer a switch for “sensitive content”.
Image Credits: FlowGPT
But it’s clear from looking at the homepage that FlowGPT has a moderation problem. It’s the wild west of GenAI apps — and the toggle is inefficient to the point where I barely notice a difference in app selection with it enabled.
Dang swears up and down that FlowGPT is actually an ethical and compliance platform, with risk mitigation policies aimed at “ensuring[ing] public security.”
“We are proactively working with leading experts in the field of AI ethics,” he said. “Our collaboration is focused on developing integrated strategies to minimize the risks associated with the development of artificial intelligence.”
Considering this writer has a FlowGPT app to give instructions on selling drugs and robbing a bank, I’d say the company has some work to do.
Investors apparently feel differently.
This week, Goodwater announced that it led a $10 million “pre-Series A” round in FlowGPT with participation from existing backer DCM. Goodwater partner Coddy Johnson, speaking to TechCrunch via email, said he sees FlowGPT “helping lead the way” in GenAI, offering “the broadest choice” and “the most flexibility and freedom” to both users and creators.
“We believe the biggest future for AI is in open ecosystems,” Johnson added. “FlowGPT [is letting] creators to choose their models and collaborate with their communities.”
Image Credits: FlowGPT
I’m not so sure that all the model maintainers pushing FlowGPT – particularly those committed to making AI security a top priority – will share in this enthusiasm.
However, and instead of the impact from those vendors (at least as of press time), FlowGPT — which is not yet generating revenue — is laying the groundwork for expansion. The company is beta-testing apps for Android and iOS that will bring a revamped FlowGPT experience to mobile, working on a revenue-sharing model for app creators and recruiting to grow its 10-person Berkeley-based team, Dang said.
“With millions of monthly users and a rapid growth rate, we’ve already proven that we’re on the right track, and we believe it’s time to accelerate progress,” he continued. “We are setting a new standard for immersion
Artificial intelligence-based environments that offer a world where creativity knows no bounds… [O]Your mission remains to foster a more open and creator-focused platform.”
We’ll see how far this goes.
