OpenAI are quietly adopting skills, now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI (simonwillison.net)

Article summary

OpenAI has quietly adopted skills, a feature that allows for more complex interactions with their language models, and is now available in ChatGPT and Codex CLI. Skills are essentially folders with a Markdown file and optional resources and scripts that can be used to perform specific tasks. The feature was first introduced by Anthropic and has been implemented by OpenAI in a similar way. This allows users to create custom skills and use them with OpenAI's language models.

Main themes

• Skills adoption
• Language model capabilities
• Customization and flexibility
• AI tooling and development
• Anthropic and OpenAI comparison

What commenters say

• The introduction of skills is a significant development in AI tooling, allowing for more complex and customized interactions with language models.
• Skills can be used to replace one-off microservices and enable agents to write their own skills, increasing their autonomy and capabilities.
• The use of skills raises concerns about the potential for misuse and the need for formal documentation and standards.
• Some commentators believe that skills are simply a way to introduce user and system prompt stuffing into the context, reducing the need for AI wrapper apps.
• Others argue that skills are a powerful feature that can be used to build complex applications and workflows, but may be limited by the use of Markdown as a DSL.
• There is a debate about the potential risks and benefits of relying on visual reading for document ingestion instead of other methods such as OCT.
• Some commentators are skeptical about the long-term value of skills, seeing them as a stopgap measure until more advanced AI capabilities are developed.
• Others believe that skills have the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with AI systems, enabling more efficient and effective workflows and applications.