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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Technology
Andrew Williams

ChatGPT gets official Android app

Famous chatbot ChatGPT is getting its own Android app, and it is already available to pre-install on Google Play.

The app, published by ChatGPT creator OpenAI, is listed as “coming soon”. While there is an install button you can tap on its store page, this simply signs you up for an automatic installation when the app launches.

Judging by the app page’s screenshots, this Android version of the ChatGPT app is very similar to the version already released on iPhone. It came to the Apple App Store on May 18.

The app positions the chatbot as an assistant that can help with everyday queries, suggesting it is here for “instant answers, tailored advice, creative inspiration, professional input, and learning opportunities.”

For example, the screenshots show someone asking about where the plates go on a formal dinner cutlery arrangement, and for present suggestions for a “coffee-loving mom”.

You will need an OpenAI account to use the ChatGPT app, though, which is also true of access through the OpenAI website or the iPhone version of the app.

Despite the massive buzz seen over ChatGPT over the past year, the app only sits at number 16 on the chart of the most popular free apps on the Apple App Store at present. Temu sits at the top spot, a position the app holds on Android too, while Threads, Vinted, and Shein are all currently bigger hitters on iPhone.

Can everyday AI help for the average person still not compete with fast fashion?

Are AI chatbots reliable?

A recent study by Stanford University in the US has found that ChatGPT 4, the large-language model (LLM) that powers ChatGPT, has actually become slower and worse at maths over time.

“The behaviour of GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 has varied significantly over a relatively short amount of time,” reads the study’s conclusion. In one test, “GPT-4’s accuracy dropped from 97.6% in March to 2.4% in June.”

The study suggests people who use AI as part of their “workflow” need to consistently monitor its performance to ensure it has not gone off the boil.

Open AI has also recently discontinued its AI Classifier tool, which aimed to identify text written by AI, because of its “low rate of accuracy”.

The company suggests it is still working on “more effective provenance techniques,” but the OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s current focus is elsewhere.

He launched Worldcoin on July 24, a cryptocurrency that relies on the use of an eyeball-scanning “Orb”, used in person, which the company says proves you are a “real and unique person” without revealing your actual identity.

Worldcoin was launched by Altman and Alex Blania, who is CEO of its developer Tools for Humanity.

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