MetaGPT

Introduction

"MetaGPT, an app to build GPT-powered microapps."

There is a lot of marketing, and very little technical, information on their website. This is always a bad sign. However, I think what you get from MetaGPT is the following.

First of all, what problem does it try to solve? The problem is, "I've got a website and I want to add a form whereby the visitor to my website can ask a question, relating to a particular topic my website is focussed on, and get an answer from GPT4. (Much like having a little ChatGPT Plus in my website but customised for my purposes.) The problem is, I don't know how to do this."

Here is a live example of what MetaGPT can do for you.

So MetaGPT actually does two things:

1. It creates the customised page you want.

2. It enables this page to communicate, through MetaGPT's own API and account, to the GPT4 service.

After trying out MetaGPT for a few hours, I found it was easier to generate the code for my customised form from ChatGPT Plus, and then add the MetaGPT JavaScript that enables communication through MetaGPT to the GPT4 service. This JavaScript is quite easy to get. You just generate any customised form from MetaGPT and you can see the JavaScript you need in the form's generated HTML/CSS/JavaScript code.

However, I am still working out how to get MetaGPT to do the whole job, so my opinion here may well change.

The full story

So, MetaGPT is a web-based application that enables you to build web-based, GPT-powered "microapps", simply by the user describing what they want. The difficulty, I have found, is in describing the app I want in a way that gives MetaGPT the information in the form it requires. On the other hand it also gives you what could be a fairly cheap way of using GPT4, particularly if your website had a lot of active users.

Rather than generate the web-based application, you could just copy the JavaScript they generate and put it straight into your web application. However, you would still have to pay a monthly fee to use their interface to GPT4.

Here is a fairly enthusiastic article on MetaGPT and here is MetaGPT itself.

So let's try it out. Below is the description of the web-based, "GPT-powered microapp", I want to create. I basically want a web-based application that looks like Axolotl and communicates with GPT, as the mobile phone versions of Axolotl do.

Please write a web-based application for an app with a screen layout described as follows. The background is #74BEE8. At the top centre is an image, axolotl_logo_white, which is 184px by 184px. Directly under that image is the word, Axolotl, which has a font size to 20px. Directly under that is an input text box that is seven lines long, has a margin each side of 10px, has a transparent background and a white border, 1px in width, and a corner radius of 10px. Under that text box are three buttons aligned horizontally. The first button has a title of "Clear", the second is "Speak Start" and the third is "Send". The first one is indented from the left of the screen by 10px. The third one is indented from the right side of the screen by 10px. The width of each button is equal to (screen width - 40)/3. They are spaced horizontally equally apart. Under these buttons is another text box, the same as the previous one but 10 lines long. Under this is a button that has the same style as the other three buttons, is set to the right of the screen and indented 10px from the right side of the screen. Its title is "Stop".

Using ChatGPT Plus

First I asked ChatGPT Plus to generate the code for me. Now, for a start, ChatGPT Plus is never going to develop a web-based app that will be able to communicate with GPT. However, it will be able to generate the code for a web page that at least looks like the Axolotl screen. I could then take that and add the interface to GPT myself, although it is a little tricky. Anyway, this is what it produced.

This is how it looks.

You can try this out if you like but only the Clear button does anything.

MetaGPT's Turn

This is how it looks.

You can try it out if you like but it doesn't yet bring a result back. I'll keep working on it.

Notes

1. ChatGPT Plus costs $AU33 per month.
2. I used the free version of MetaGPT but MetaGPT Pro costs $AU47 per month. Both also give your apps access to the GPT4 service. The rest of us can only develop applications that access the GPT3.5 service through OpenAI's API at the moment, and OpenAI charge for the usage. This charge is very small, ie a few cents, unless you have a lot of active users on your web page, and then the cost could become quite significant. In that case it could be cheaper for you to sign up for the MetaGPT account and use its connection to GPT4 for $AU47 per month.
3. As I mentioned before, I doubt that ChatGPT Plus is going to be able to develop a web-based application that communicates with GPT, no matter how well I describe the functionality required. But I'm not totally sure about that. I'll keep working on it
4. As I also mentioned before, MetaGPT should be able to develop a web-based application that looks like Axolotl and communicates with GPT, but I'm not totally sure about that either. I'll keep working on it