AutoGPT: A Game-Changer in AI Automation

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Introduction

In recent years, we've witnessed a technological revolution in the field of artificial intelligence. One of the most groundbreaking developments has been the advent of Large Language Models (LLMs). Since the release of ChatGPT, people have been both shocked and excited by the capabilities of this AI.

Countless experiments have been conducted to push the boundaries and explore the full potential of LLMs. Traditionally, these experiments have involved incorporating AI as part of a larger pipeline. However, what if we told you that the entire process could be automated by the AI itself? Imagine just setting the goal of a task and then sitting back and relaxing while the AI takes care of everything, from scraping websites for information to summarizing content and executing connected plugins. Fortunately, this vision is no longer a distant dream. Welcome to the world of AutoGPT!

AutoGPT is an experimental open-source application that showcases the remarkable capabilities of the GPT-4 language model. This program, driven by GPT-4, connects the dots between LLM "thoughts" to autonomously achieve whatever goal you set. It represents one of the first examples of GPT-4 running fully autonomously, effectively pushing the boundaries of what is possible with AI.

AutoGPT comes packed with an array of features that make it a game-changer in the world of AI automation. Let's take a closer look at what sets this revolutionary tool apart:

1. Internet Access for Searches and Information Gathering: AutoGPT has the power to access the internet, making it a formidable tool for information gathering. Whether you need to research a topic, gather data, or fetch real-time information, AutoGPT can navigate the web effortlessly.
2. Long-Term and Short-Term Memory Management: Just like a human, AutoGPT has memory. It can remember context and information from previous interactions, enabling it to provide more coherent and contextually relevant responses.
3. GPT-4 Instances for Text Generation: With the might of GPT-4 behind it, AutoGPT can generate high-quality text that is coherent, contextually accurate, and tailored to your specific needs. Whether it's drafting an email, writing code, or crafting a compelling story, AutoGPT has got you covered.
4. Access to Popular Websites and Platforms: AutoGPT can access popular websites and platforms, interacting with them just as a human user would. This opens up endless possibilities, from automating routine tasks on social media to retrieving data from web applications.
5. File Storage and Summarization with GPT-3.5: AutoGPT doesn't just generate text; it also manages files and can summarize content using the GPT-3.5 model. This means it can help you organize and understand your data more efficiently.
6. Extensibility with Plugins: AutoGPT is highly extensible, thanks to its plugin architecture. You can customize its functionality by adding plugins tailored to your specific needs. Whether it's automating tasks in your business or streamlining personal chores, plugins make AutoGPT endlessly adaptable. For more information regarding plugins, you can check the official repo.

Throughout this article, we’ll learn how to install AutoGPT and run it on your local computer. Moreover, we’ll also learn how to utilize it to build your own personal investment valuation analyst! Without wasting any more time, let’s take a deep breath, make yourselves comfortable, and be ready to learn all about AutoGPT!

Setting Up AutoGPT

Let’s go through the process of setting up AutoGPT, whether you choose to use Docker or Git, setting up AutoGPT is pretty straightforward. But before we delve into the technical details, let's start with the most crucial step: obtaining an API key from OpenAI.

Getting an API Key

To use AutoGPT effectively, you'll need an API key from OpenAI. You can obtain this key by visiting the OpenAI API Key page at https://platform.openai.com/account/api-keys. It's essential to note that for seamless operation and to prevent potential crashes, we recommend setting up a billing account with OpenAI.

Free accounts come with limitations, allowing only three API calls per minute. A paid account ensures a smoother experience. You can set up a paid account by following these steps:

1. Go to "Manage Account."
2. Navigate to "Billing."
3. Click on "Overview."

Setting up AutoGPT with Docker

Before you begin, make sure you have Docker installed on your system. If you haven't installed Docker yet, you can find the installation instructions here. Now, let’s start setting up AutoGPT with Docker.

1. Open your terminal or command prompt.

2. Create a project directory for AutoGPT. You can name it anything you like, but for this guide, we'll use "AutoGPT".

mkdir AutoGPT
cd AutoGPT

3. In your project directory, create a file called `docker-compose.yml` and populate it with the following contents:

version: "3.9"
services:
  auto-gpt:
    image: significantgravitas/auto-gpt
    env_file:
      - .env
    profiles: ["exclude-from-up"]
    volumes:
      - ./auto_gpt_workspace:/app/auto_gpt_workspace
      - ./data:/app/data
      - ./logs:/app/logs

This configuration file specifies the settings for your AutoGPT Docker container, including environment variables and volume mounts.

4. AutoGPT requires specific configuration files. You can find templates for these files in the AutoGPT repository. Create the necessary configuration files as needed.

5. Before running AutoGPT, pull the latest image from Docker Hub

docker pull significantgravitas/auto-gpt

6. With Docker Compose configured and the image pulled, you can now run AutoGPT:

docker compose run --rm auto-gpt

This command launches AutoGPT inside a Docker container, and it's all set to perform its AI-powered magic.

Setting up AutoGPT with Git

If you prefer to set up AutoGPT using Git, here are the steps to follow:

1. Ensure that you have Git installed on your system. You can download it from https://git-scm.com/downloads.

2. Open your terminal or command prompt.

3. Clone the AutoGPT repository using Git:

git clone -b stable https://github.com/Significant-Gravitas/AutoGPT.git

4. Navigate to the directory where you downloaded the repository:

cd AutoGPT/autogpts/autogpt

5. Run the startup script

a. On Linux/MacOS:

./run.sh

b. On Windows:

.\run.bat

If you encounter errors, ensure that you have a compatible Python version installed and meet the requirements outlined in the documentation.

AutoGPT for Your Personal Investment Valuation Analyst

In our previous article, we explored the exciting use case of building a personal investment news analyst with LLM. However, making sound investment decisions based solely on news articles is only one piece of the puzzle.

To truly understand the potential of an investment, it's crucial to dive deeper into the financial health of the companies you're considering. This involves analyzing financial statements, including balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. Yet, the sheer volume of data within these documents can be overwhelming, especially for newbie retail investors.

Let’s see how AutoGPT is in action! Once the AutoGPT is up, we’ll be shown a welcome message and it will ask us to give the name of our AI, the role, and also the goals that we want to achieve. In this case, we’ll give the name of AI as “Personal Investment Valuation Analyst”. As for the role and goals, please see the attached image below.

After we input the role and the goals, our assistant will start planning all of the things that it needs to do. It will give some thoughts along with the reasoning before creating a plan. Sometimes it’ll also criticize itself with the aim to create a better plan. Once the plan is laid out, it will ask for confirmation from the user. If the user is satisfied with the plan, then they can give their approval by typing “y”.

Then, AutoGPT will execute each of the planned tasks. For example, here, it is browsing through the internet with the “official source of Apple financial statements” query.

Based on the result of the first task, it learned that it needs to visit the corporate website of Apple, visit the invertor relations page, and then search for the required documents, which are the balance sheet, cashflow statement, and income statement. Look at this! Pretty amazing, right?

The process then continues by searching through the investor relations page on the Apple website as planned in the previous step. This process will continue until the goals are achieved, which is to give recommendations to the user on whether to buy, sell, or hold the Apple stock based on valuation analysis.

Conclusion

Congratulations on keeping up to this point! Throughout this article, you have learned what is AutoGPT, how to install and run it on your local computer, and how to utilize it as your personal investment valuation analyst. Hope the best for your experiment with AutoGPT and see you in the next article!

Author Bio

Louis Owen is a data scientist/AI engineer from Indonesia who is always hungry for new knowledge. Throughout his career journey, he has worked in various fields of industry, including NGOs, e-commerce, conversational AI, OTA, Smart City, and FinTech. Outside of work, he loves to spend his time helping data science enthusiasts to become data scientists, either through his articles or through mentoring sessions. He also loves to spend his spare time doing his hobbies: watching movies and conducting side projects.

Currently, Louis is an NLP Research Engineer at Yellow.ai, the world’s leading CX automation platform. Check out Louis’ website to learn more about him! Lastly, if you have any queries or any topics to be discussed, please reach out to Louis via LinkedIn.