ChatGPT, the AI chat bot that is the talk of the tech world, now gives restaurant recommendations.
Parent company OpenAI has partnered with reservations site OpenTable to give the bot access to OpenTable data, allowing it to generate responses to questions like: “Where’s a highly reviewed brunch spot I can take my mom this Mother’s Day in Charleston?”
Recommendations will include a link to book a table.
Right now, the feature is available only to subscribers of ChatGPT Plus, a $20 monthly membership that offers faster response times and access to new features. But it will be gradually rolled out to more users, and OpenTable did not rule out making the bot a feature of its actual website someday.
“Currently, this feature is only available through ChatGPT, but it’s exciting to imagine future use cases,” OpenTable Chief Growth Officer Susan Lee wrote in an email.
Learn more about how restaurants are using ChatGPT.
The integration is part of a major step forward for ChatGPT, which until this week did not have access to the internet. Instead, it drew responses from a massive body of training material that taught it to understand human speech patterns. But that data was only current through September 2021.
On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled about a dozen plugins that will allow ChatGPT to interact with other sites, including OpenTable, Expedia and Instacart.
So how can restaurants that use OpenTable get on ChatGPT’s recommendation radar? Lee said they can boost their visibility by adding more information to their profiles. “The more details like menus, tags, photos, and reviews, the better,” she wrote.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a Restaurant Business member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.