The GPT Store is filling up with spam GPTs

This is an issue that any digital storefront has to deal with, spam. App stores and game stores have to deal with it, so it’s only logical that the new GPT store has to also deal with it. Yes! The GPT store, even though it’s only a few months old, is already being overrun with spam GPTs.

If you don’t know what the GPT store is, you might want to if you’re an avid ChatGPT user. A GPT is like a customized version of ChatGPT that is specialized to perform a specific function. Say, you’d like a version of ChatGPT that specializes in giving you facts about movies. You could also find one that specializes in accounting or paleontology.

You can access and install GPTs if you are a ChatGPT Plus member. There’s no word on whether the company plans on bringing this functionality down to free users. You will just want to be careful because a recent report found that several extensions and GPTs have led to people having their accounts hacked or stolen.

The GPT store seems to be filling up with spam

As much as we would like to believe the opposite, this was inevitable. Any sort of storefront is susceptible to spam from unsavory individuals. TechCrunch did an investigation into the GPT store, and it found several GPTs that should rightfully violate OpenAI’s terms of service. These are GPTs that can cause some serious copyright infringement. It found a generator that could create monsters in the style of Pixar’s Monsters Inc. There is also another GPT that can imitate Aang from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The list goes on, and it contains GPTs that could either get the creators sued or OpenAI sued.

Not only that but there are other GPTs that promise to bypass ChatGPT’s safety guardrails. That is just a breeding ground for all sorts of trouble. ChatGPT is able to create some rather inappropriate content, but there are still tough guardrails in place to keep things from getting even worse. So, imagine if the chatbot did not have a filter for inappropriate content. This is the kind of thing that many people want. Well, there are some GPTs out there that promise to let you do whatever you want.

Another type of GPT found is something that many of us have dealt with on app stores. These are GPTs that are basically just empty shells. They’re completely useless bits of code that are just a conduit to a paid service.

Unfortunately, there are many more spammy GPTs on the GPT store, and we predict that it’s going to get worse. Open AI said that there are about 3 million GPTs on the store, and we can expect that a good amount of them are spam.

How OpenAI moderates GPTs

In order for a GPT to be posted to the store, it has to go through an approval process. The company says that it uses a mixture of automated systems and human review to determine if a GPT is appropriate. However, it appears that many spammy GPTs are slipping through the cracks.

At this point, we don’t know what OpenAI is planning on doing to eliminate the risk of spammy GPTs. In the meantime, if you are using these, then you will just need to be careful with which ones you install.