GPT4free: OpenAI threatens developers of free GPT 4 version

Post author:California18
Post published:May 7, 2023
Post category:Sci&Tech
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OpenAI, a company co-financed by Microsoft, is celebrating huge success with ChatGPT and GPT-4. The AI bots are available via Bing, among other things, but if you want to use them directly, you have to pay. The GitHub project called GPT4free circumvents this – but there is now trouble.

Microsoft Bing made ChatGPT suitable for the masses some time ago, and GPT-4 is already being used in the search engine of the Redmond company. That’s probably enough for most users, at least if they don’t have a problem using Bing.

But there are enough people who want to use OpenAI chatbots directly. The “old” ChatGPT is freely available to everyone, directly at OpenAI. In the case of GPT-4, this is not easily possible. Because users have to pay for ChatGPT Plus or access to the OpenAI API or find a site that – like Bing – provides a GPT-4-based chatbot.

GPT-4 for free via “detours”

A GitHub project called GPT4free however, allows free access to GPT-4 as well as GPT-3.5 by routing the requests through services like You.com, Quora and CoCalc. The users then get the answers via GPT4free. The repository is hugely popular and is currently the most popular new addition to GitHub.

But the question now is: for how much longer? How Tom’s hardware reported, the developer of OpenAI, operating under the name Xtekky, received a letter asking him to end the project and take it off GitHub. The AI company gave him five days if he did not comply with the request, he would have to expect a lawsuit. The GPT4free developer is convinced that he is not doing anything illegal here and that OpenAI’s argument does not apply either, since he does not tap into their API, but only services that are freely available on the Internet (which, however, miss out on advertising revenue). If they have a problem with his scripts, then they should address him directly.

“OpenAI could also reach out to the sites and warn/notify them and takedown in cooperation with me, but it seems this is coming entirely from OpenAI and they basically claim that I’m attacking them directly,” Xtekky said.

Xtekky is combative, saying that OpenAI is pressuring him or her to delete the repo on their own: “But the right way should be an official DMCA, via GitHub.” However, removing it would be largely pointless anyway, according to Xtekky, since the code is already available in many other places on the Internet.

Summary