If you are a frequent user of OpenAI products, such as DALL-E or ChatGPT, you may want to expand the capabilities of these tools with OpenAI API – a flexible cloud-based interface that allows you to get access to a comprehensive general-purpose text-in and text-out solution that essentially enables you to perform any task that can be described in English. Does it sound interesting to you? If so, let’s find out more!
What is OpenAI API?
As we’ve already said, OpenAI API is a cloud-based interface that works on Microsoft Azure. You can think of it as all the OpenAI products in one (including Dall-E, Codex, Whisper, and ChatGPT) that can be available within one dashboard, thus giving you easy access to all the capabilities and features of these tools. You don’t need to spend time changing those tools, logging in and logging out, everything is not at your service in one dashboard.
Combined, OpenAI API allows you to perform almost any task that can be described in English, from generating textual content to audio-visual creations.
From the programming perspective, OpenAI API can be used to:
- Conduct semantic search
- Generate diverse pieces of content
- Translate texts (in over 80 languages!)
- Summarize and rephrase existing texts
- Analyze the sentiment of a given text (e.g., for brand management purposes), and more
Once everything is setup, all you need to do is provide OpenAI API with a specific task in the form of a text prompt, and you’ll get the answer in return, just like it happens with other OpenAI products. We always recommend, if possible, to provide this tool with some examples showing/describing what you want to achieve – this increases the chances of getting exactly what you want to get.
How can I use the OpenAI API?
In general, the whole process is relatively straightforward, however, you need to know Python or Node to complete it. First off, you need to create an OpenAI account (you can do so for free on their website). Complete the registration process and log in to your account.
Once you do that, the next step is to generate the so-called OpenAI API key. Go to your profile button in the upper right corner and click the “View API keys” option. Because at this point, you probably don’t have any keys, you need to create a new “secret key”, you will find such an option in the central part of your screen.
Important: Make sure you copy the key that will be shown to you because most likely, you won’t be able to view the whole key again after you close the window with it.
The next step involves making a test call with the OpenAI API key and sending a request to the API endpoint with your API key and a prompt to generate text. Here, you’ll need to use your programming expertise to craft an HTTP POST request to the OpenAI API endpoint. Include your API key and the prompt in the request body, and send the HTTP request to the OpenAI API endpoint. You should receive a response from the API containing the text generated by the AI model based on your prompt, confirming the test call was successful.
Four main capabilities of OpenAI API
Now, let’s have a look at four crucial capabilities of OpenAI API:
Text Generation Models
We start with the most common application of OpenAI products – text generation. Here, you can use tools like GPT-4 (paid) and GPT-3.5 (free) to generate almost any text you want. Both models understand normal language, so you don’t need to spend weeks learning prompts. Just describe in your own words, what kind of text you need, and the tool will generate it for you. Typically, you should create a prompt that comprises both the description of what you want and some examples telling ChatGPT how to complete the task in the way you expect.
Smart Assistants
Here, in essence, we refer to chatbots. These assistants are based on LLMs (large language models) such as GPT-4. Smart assistants work the same way as text generation models; the only difference is that you can set them to help your users/customers perform tasks or answer their questions for them with no involvement on your part. You can also set up your assistants in such a way that they are capable of performing even more complex tasks, such as generating code or obtaining the necessary information from a file.
Text Embedding Models
text embedding models are designed to transform text strings into dense, high-dimensional vectors, offering a numerical representation of textual content. In simpler terms, text embedding models turn words and sentences into numbers so computers can understand and work with them in a more effective manner.
Text embedding models can be used for a variety of tasks, including the following:
- Sentiment analysis
- Document classification
- Semantic search
- Information retrieval
Thanks to those embedding models, you can process textual data in a more effective way and use it for various machine learning tasks.
Tokens
Text generation and embedding models process text in chunks called tokens. In short, they serve as the basic building blocks for the OpenAI model’s understanding of language. By breaking down text into tokens, the model can analyze and process the input more efficiently, capturing the nuances of language and context. Tokens enable the model to recognize and interpret the structure of sentences, understand relationships between words, and generate coherent responses, so just like text embedding models, they make your work easier and more efficient.
Summary
OpenAI API is a very helpful tool for anyone who needs all the capabilities of OpenAI models in one place. With it, you can make your work quicker and easier and develop more advanced AI or ML tools and algorithms. If you’d like to know more about OpenAI API and how to implement it, we invite you to read this guide: How Do I Use the OpenAI API and Find the API Key? Step by Step Guide. You can also have a look at the OpenAI help section, where you will find detailed instructions on how to make OpenAI API work.
