Quick answerOriginally introduced by OpenAI in March 2023, ChatGPT plugins were a way to extend the core chatbot's abilities beyond generating text based on its training data. They worked by allowing ChatGPT to act as an interface for external web services. When a user asked a question or gave a command that required information or actions beyond ChatGPT's built-in knowledge, the model could identify if an installed plugin was relevant. If so, it would call that plugin, pass the user's request, and receive a response back. The response might be current data, like weather forecasts, or a confirmation of an action, such as a restaurant booking.What ChatGPT plugins didThink of it as giving ChatGPT a set of tools. Without plugins, ChatGPT could tell you about a screwdriver. With a plugin, it could then use a digital screwdriver to interact with another application. Each plugin was developed by a third-party company,…