OpenAI, the company behind the popular ChatGPT language model, has announced a new partnership with Stack Overflow, the open platform for coding challenges. The partnership aims to improve ChatGPT’s ability to handle programming-related tasks by leveraging Stack Overflow’s vetted technical knowledge, code, and community.
This collaboration comes as Stack Overflow has seen a decline in traffic since programmers have been using ChatGPT to help them complete code and address questions. By teaming up with OpenAI, Stack Overflow hopes to improve its platform and make it more relevant to users once again.
The partnership involves OpenAI developers gaining access to Stack Overflow’s public datasets through the OverflowAPI service. This will enable them to train and fine-tune the GPT-4 family of models with accurate and up-to-date technical content. In return, ChatGPT will be able to provide improved coding-related answers by leveraging the technical knowledge from Stack Overflow. Users of the chatbot will have access to trusted and highly technical knowledge and code backed by millions of developers on the platform.
To address credibility concerns, each ChatGPT response using Stack Overflow data will include links to the highest relevance posts that influenced the summarized answer. This way, users can delve deeper into the platform for more engagement.
The partnership is not only about data sharing. Stack Overflow also plans to use OpenAI’s models to develop generative AI capabilities for its own platforms, including the public Stack Overflow site and Stack Overflow for Teams. These new features, which are part of the OverflowAI project, will be available before mid-2024.
Stack Overflow CEO Prashanth Chandrasekar highlights the significance of this partnership, stating that it aims to redefine the developer experience by fostering efficiency and collaboration through the power of community, data, and AI. He emphasizes the importance of vetted, trusted, and accurate data as the foundation for technology solutions.
This collaboration is part of OpenAI’s broader efforts to gather data from credible sources to improve its models. The company recently partnered with the Financial Times to expand the journalistic content available via ChatGPT. OpenAI has also signed licensing deals with other media firms, including Associated Press, Axel Springer, and the American Journalism Project. These partnerships signify OpenAI’s commitment to incorporating diverse and reliable information into its AI models.
Overall, the OpenAI-Stack Overflow partnership not only benefits both companies but also offers significant value to users. By combining the strengths of their respective platforms, they aim to enhance the developer experience and provide accurate and trustworthy information to programmers using ChatGPT. This collaboration exemplifies the responsible integration of AI in business and highlights the potential of combining community-driven knowledge with advanced language models.