Integration with Wolfram Alpha API for Calculations

[delizin]

I'd like to share this article from Stephen Wolfram, of Wolfram Alpha: https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/01/wolframalpha-as-the-way-to-bring-computational-knowledge-superpowers-to-chatgpt/

Connecting Open-Assistant to the Wolfram|Alpha API could provide a powerful solution for many problems that require high precision. Open-Assistant will be able to produce text that is similar to human-generated text, making it useful for tasks like writing suggestions and text generation. However, it may end up like ChatGPT where it does not have a precise understanding of the information it generates and can fall short when asked for precise information.

On the other hand, Wolfram|Alpha is a knowledge-based system that has a precise computational representation of knowledge, which allows it to compute things reliably. By connecting Open-Assistant with Wolfram|Alpha, we can overcome these limitations, as it can produce natural language, which Wolfram|Alpha can then convert into a precise, formal representation for reliable computation.

This combination provides a powerful solution that can be applied to a wide range of tasks.

[GravermanDev]

This is cool however it's impossible due because of our license and the fact that the API is paid. But actually there is a wolfram like open source alternative called Sage. It could work

[GravermanDev]

nvm Sage is sometimes not commercial, well we gotta look further, like sympy gamma

[yk]

I mean, it's totally possible for us to build in support for WA. Like, it could be an optional extension, and you'd have to plug in your own API key, but just because we're Apache doesn't mean we can't call a paid service if the user wants that to happen.

[danielpatrickhug]

I spotted this in langchain's issues thread. Stephen Wolfram talking about integrating wolfram and chatgpt. He seems pretty optimistic. https://writings.stephenwolfram.com/2023/01/wolframalpha-as-the-way-to-bring-computational-knowledge-superpowers-to-chatgpt/

[sedthh]

I think the Assistant should allow connection to multiple 3rd party APIs as long as the user has their own key. Weather, news, stocks, etc. should all be retrievable just like with any other smart assitant that has access to the internet.

I think the best way to achieve this would be to introduce an API wrapper to the logic that turns any 3rd party JSON into a single, standardized format so in case of an API change or switch of vendor, the funcitonality will not break.

I can work on this and other APIs as well if others agree.

[MalikMAlna]

Yeah @sedthh, I think that would be helpful, but would likely need to be made into its own board task.

[mm12]

Remember there are also alternatives to Wolfram, might not be as good tho.

[davidak]

As you probably heard, ChatGPT does now have Plugin Support including WolframAlpha.

https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt-plugins

It should be preferred to do everything locally (offline) with open source software and only use online services (APIs) when needed and also prefer community maintained open data sources. Proprietary paid services should be the last thing to try.

[LuposX]

Toolformer Paper might be helpful.

[pevogam]

I would relate this issue to this pull request as a specific approach: https://github.com/LAION-AI/Open-Assistant/pull/2765