#NewsBytesExplainer: Is Quora's Poe a ChatGPT rival or something else
OpenAI's AI chatbot ChatGPT has garnered an impressive number of followers in the short time it's been available. Its popularity has forced other companies to focus on building their own version of ChatGPT. Popular question-and-answer forum Quora entered the fray in December with its own AI system named 'Poe.' Is it a ChatGPT rival? Or something more interesting? Let's take a look.
Poe will offer multiple AI-powered chatbots on the platform
Poe or 'Platform for Open Exploration,' is an ambitious project from Quora. According to the company's CEO Adam D'Angelo, it "lets people ask questions, get instant answers, and have back-and-forth conversations." However, Poe isn't like ChatGPT or any other chatbot. Poe is a bot aggregator of sorts. Based on the details shared by D'Angelo, it will offer multiple AI agents on the platform.
Chatbots need easy-to-use interface to become easily accessible: Quora CEO
D'Angelo thinks that there will be multiple chatbots like ChatGPT in the future. They "will be optimized for different tasks, they will represent different points of view, or they will have access to different knowledge," he said. According to him, to make these models easily accessible to the public, they need a "fast and easy-to-use interface," which most companies are not capable of creating.
Poe aims to become a common interface for different LLMs
Poe isn't an attempt at building a ChatGPT-like chatbot from scratch. Instead, it aims to become a common interface for different Large Language Models (LLMs). Users can't interact with LLMs because they are essentially algorithms trained on a large amount of data without an interface of their own. On Poe, people will have access to multiple LLMs.
Poe is not trained on data available on Quora
D'Angelo and Quora have adamantly said that Poe is independent of Quora. It is not trained on the content available on Quora. At least, not yet. The CEO said that if the company decides to do so, creators will have the option to opt out. Wise decision, considering the outrage over the tendency of AI systems to regurgitate the data they were trained on.
The company is working on an API to help developers
Poe wants to make it easier for AI developers to reach a larger audience. To that end, the company is developing an API that will make it easier for developers to plug their models into Poe. It also has a feature that lets people share the model output with their followers, which will then be shared with other Poe users.
Users can share their model output to help others
By sharing model outputs with users, the company aims to help users understand the best ways Poe can be used. "We hope to become the most efficient way for people to collectively explore the possibilities opened up by new AI models as they are released," said D'Angelo. The name 'Platform for Exploration' stems from the idea of exploring different AI models.
Poe is only available on iPhones for now
When Poe was introduced in December, it was invite-only. Now, the company has opened access to the AI system to everyone. However, only the iOS version of the app is available as of now. D'Angelo said the company would add support for other platforms in the next few months. The website shows that the Android version is coming soon.
Big companies may refuse to join hands with Poe
Poe has the lofty goal of being the place where people go to try multiple AI systems. Considering the competition present in the field, this may not be achievable. Especially when it comes to AI systems developed by companies like Google or OpenAI. It may, however, provide a platform for AI systems developed by lesser-known developers.
