International Journal of Engineering Insights: (2023) Vol. 1, Nro.1, Regular Paper

https://doi.org/10.61961/injei.v1i1.7

ChatGPT API: Brief overview and integration in Software

Development

Cristian M. Gallardo · Cristian R. Machuca · Yadira Semblantes

Received: 24 June 2023 / Accepted: 20 September 2023

Abstract: Powerful natural language processing (NLP)

tools have experienced siginiﬁcant advancements, with

ChatGPT emerging as the most successful NLP tool

since late 2022. This paper provides an overview of the

ChatGPT API, addresses how this API can be used

eﬀectively in software development, and highlights its

key applications and advantages. The results highlight

the potential of the ChatGPT API as a valuable tool

in software development, oﬀering intelligent and eﬃ-

cient solutions for a variety of applications. It empha-

sises the importance of understanding how to integrate

and leverage this API eﬀectively, and concludes that

its proper implementation can signiﬁcantly improve the

quality and eﬃciency of software development projects.

Keywords ChatGPT · API · Software · Development ·

Review

1 Introduction

In recent years, Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) has evolved

signiﬁcantly and greatly impacts and drives innovation

and change in all spheres of society, applications have

been developed that provide quick solutions to every-

day problems of people, from simple actions of everyday

life[1].

To complex actions of large companies and indus-

tries [2], even in the academic and scientiﬁc ﬁeld has

noticed a large growth of applications with AI[3]. In

Cristian M. Gallardo

Tomsk Polytechnic University

Tomsk, Rusia

kristianmaurisio1@tpu.ru

Cristian R. Machuca

Tomsk Polytechnic University

Tomsk, Rusia

cristian.machuca.mendoza@gmail.com

Yadira Semblantes

Universidad de las Fuerzas Armadas ESPE - Instituto Supe-

rior Universitario Cotopaxi

Latacunga, Ecuador

ymsemblantes@espe.edu.ec

[4], a literature review of AI, the authors state that AI

and machine learning (ML) have demonstrated their

potential to revolutionise industries, public services and

society, reaching or even surpassing human levels of per-

formance in terms of accuracy for a variety of problems.

On the other hand, in [5] It is stated that AI has been

closely related to automated reasoning and imitation of

human intelligence since its inception, and that appli-

cations of this type have grown signiﬁcantly.

One of the great AI breakthroughs that will succeed

in 2023 is the development of ChatGPT (Generative

Pretrained Transformer), an AI-based language model

created by the company OpenAI [6], which is deﬁned

as an artiﬁcial intelligence chat system that is surpris-

ingly powerful in its disruption of reality, deﬁned as a

”system” capable of responding to everything, by ev-

erything and for everything in a short time and with

high levels of accuracy.

It is trained with an enormous amount of knowl-

edge: 570 gigabytes of text and a model of more than

175 million parameters, according to data from Stan-

ford University. Like any other current service, openAI

provides its users with an Application Programming

Interface (API) with which to invoke its diﬀerent ser-

vices, allowing developers and companies to integrate

into their applications. Mobile applications have rev-

olutionised the way we interact with technology and

have proven to be powerful tools for solving a variety

of problems in diﬀerent areas of our lives [7]. These ap-

plications are designed to run on mobile devices, such

as smartphones and tablets, allowing them to be acces-

sible anytime, anywhere.

In this sense, this paper proposes a review of the cur-

rent situation of mobile application development and its

integration with the ChatGPT API [8], and all that is

involved in its development, impact and beneﬁts to so-

ciety. The rest of the document is organised as follows:

section 2 shows the overview of ChatGPT, section 3 the

aspects to consider in software development, the discus-

sion is shown in section 4 and ﬁnally the conclusions in

section 5.

28 International Journal of Engineering Insights, (2023) 1:1

2 Background: Brief review

In recent years, AI has generated a variety of tools, es-

pecially APIs, which have experienced remarkable growth

worldwide. In 2023, the ChatGPT API and its func-

tionalities have gained signiﬁcant traction. This section

presents a literature review of related work.

ChatGPT, an AI system created by OpenAI, falls

under the category of natural language processing (NLP).

Its purpose revolves around producing conversations

that mimic human dialogue by comprehending the con-

versational context and formulating ﬁtting replies. The

foundation of ChatGPT rests on a deep learning archi-

tecture named GPT-3. This model has undergone train-

ing on an extensive collection of dialogues to achieve its

capabilities [9].

The groundbreaking chatbot, possesses the ability

to engage in meaningful conversations. This is capable

of holding thoughtful dialogues with users, responding

to inquiries, oﬀering guidance, and elucidating intricate

ideas[10]. ChatGPT, a NLP system, boasts a range of

attributes that contribute to its prowess, including the

ability to ﬁnd bugs in code, compose poetry and son-

nets, develop scripts, and generate school essays on var-

ious topics.

ChatGPT boasts a range of attributes that con-

tribute to its prowess as an NLP (Natural Language

Processing) system. It excels in comprehending conver-

sational context and producing ﬁtting replies. It ex-

hibits proﬁciency in crafting responses across various

languages like English, Spanish, French, and German.

Moreover, This showcases versatility by generating re-

sponses in diverse tones, including formal, casual, and

amusing styles.

These applications leverage the power of natural

language processing to deliver richer, more personalized

user experiences by incorporating ChatGPT’s ability to

understand human language and generate coherent re-

sponses.

In [11], they propose the evaluation of GUIs in mo-

bile applications, through question and answer routines,

automated GUI tests are performed using Chat GPT’s

large language model (LLM), so that it chats with mo-

bile applications by passing the information from the

GUI to the LLM and according to its stored informa-

tion it identiﬁes how eﬀective the GUI of the application

being analyzed is.

This model is widely used for programming. In [12],

the author develops a guided mobile application with

ChatGPT, asking questions throughout the develop-

ment phase, in addition to using code as it provided

ready-to-use code snippets. In [13], an empirical investi-

gation is conducted, comparing the performance of soft-

ware engineers and artiﬁcial intelligence systems, such

as ChatGPT, through diﬀerent evaluation metrics. The

empirical study includes a case of evaluating code gen-

erated by it versus code produced by developers, the

results demonstrate that automated systems such as

ChatGPT can, in certain cases, outperform novice soft-

ware engineers on speciﬁc tasks. This superiority was

particularly evident in easy and medium-level problem

solving.

On the other hand, in [14] explores the use of Chat-

GPT to resolve programming errors, the authors con-

clude that the use of ChatGPT as part of a comprehen-

sive set of debugging tools and the beneﬁts of combin-

ing its strengths with the strengths of other debugging

tools to identify and correct errors more eﬀectively.

In contrast, a case study involving collaboration be-

tween a novice software architect and ChatGPT to de-

sign a service-based software is proposed in [15]. The

research focuses on leveraging empirical evidence on

architect productivity and explores the socio-technical

aspects of architecting with ChatGPT.

There are literature reviews where reviews on the

importance of ChatGPT in software engineering are

presented, where it is evident that emerging technolo-

gies such as ChatGPT propose a paradigm shift in the

way software developers conceptualize, design and ex-

ecute their projects, this new horizon of possibilities

also brings challenges that researchers must overcome

[16]. Similarly, a systematic literature review on the ap-

plication of ChatGPT in software development is pre-

sented in [17]. The review identiﬁes 12 studies using

ChatGPT in some software development domains, the

authors mention that the ﬁndings of this review oﬀer

signiﬁcant contributions to the current understanding

and future direction of ChatGPT use in the software

development domain.

As this brief review identiﬁes, the use of ChatGPT

in software development has had a signiﬁcant impact on

the way development teams work and communicate, of-

fering assistance with key tasks such as documentation,

problem resolution, code generation and more. How-

ever, it is important to remember that these models

are powerful tools, but they are not a substitute for the

expertise and judgment of human developers. Their use

complements and accelerates the software development

process, but it is still essential to have competent pro-

fessionals on the team.

3 Important aspects in software development

There are currently many programming languages in

use, according to [18], and these can be integrated with

29 International Journal of Engineering Insights, (2023) 1:1

Table 1 Programming Language and ChatGPT

Programming Language Advantages Limitations API ChatGPT

Python Native OpenAI client sup-

port.

Large ecosystem for ma-

chine learning and NLP.

Many examples and tutori-

als are available.

Might be slower for real-

time applications compared

to some compiled lan-

guages.

Not ideal for mobile appli-

cations.

API key of OPENAI

pip install openai

import openai

JavaScript (Node.js) Suitable for web applica-

tions and real- time integra-

tions.

Asynchronous by nature.

Expanding ecosystem with

server-side libraries.

Less mature ML/NLP

ecosystem compared to

Python.

Might require additional

security considerations for

client-side usage.

[Nodejs4](>= 18) and

NPM5

npm i chatgpt

import ChatGPTAPI from

chatgpt;

Java Strong performance for

large- scale applications.

Java libraries may exist for

integration.

Platform agnostic (can run

anywhere with JVM).

Mature ecosystem with

solid community support

Verbose syntax could make

integration more cumber-

some.

Might have less community

support for ChatGPT

speciﬁcally compared to

Python.

Start-up time and memory

overhead due to the JVM

might not be ideal for

lightweight applications.

Althoughs platform-

agnostic, performance opti-

mization might vary across

platforms.

Java Development Kit

(JDK)

The URL for the ChatGPT

API endpoint.

Rubi Ruby on Rails makes it

popular for web apps.

Dynamic and object-

oriented.

Has libraries for making

HTTP calls.

Slower performance than

some languages.

Less emphasis on ML/NLP

compared to Python.

gem openai

OPENAI API KEY=your

api key

the chatGPT API, with certain conﬁgurations and tools.

The advantages and disadvantages of each language and

considerations for using chatGPT are detailed in [16],

as shown in Table 1.

4 Discussion

The use of ChatGPT in software development is an in-

teresting topic that has generated a lot of attention and

debate in the developer community and in the technol-

ogy industry in general. The following are some of the

important points that have been identiﬁed.

Automation of repetitive tasks: Can be used to au-

tomate repetitive tasks in software development, such

as basic code generation, documentation or unit test

creation. This can increase developer productivity by

allowing them to focus on more creative and complex

tasks.

Troubleshooting support Developers can use it as

a tool to get help with technical troubleshooting. They

can ask speciﬁc questions about code bugs, performance

issues or design issues, and get quick suggestions for ad-

dressing those problems.

Documentation generation: Can be used to create

technical documentation more eﬃciently. It can gener-

ate detailed descriptions of functions, APIs and other

software components, making it easier to keep the doc-

umentation up to date.

User interface design: Can help in the user interface

design process by generating user descriptions, work-

ﬂow deﬁnitions and design suggestions. This can be

useful for UX/UI designers and front-end development

teams.

Code review: Can perform automatic code reviews

looking for common bugs, style conventions and secu-

rity vulnerabilities. This can help improve code quality

and reduce bugs before they reach production.

30 International Journal of Engineering Insights, (2023) 1:1

However, as with any emerging technology there are

also concerns and challenges related to the use of Chat-

GPT in software development:

Quality and accuracy: Although ChatGPT can be

useful, its quality and accuracy may vary. It may gen-

erate code or suggestions that are suboptimal or even

incorrect. Developers should be cautious about relying

entirely on model-generated responses.

Security: Security of data and intellectual property

is a major concern when using ChatGPT for software

development. Sensitive data can be leaked through con-

versations with the model, posing privacy risks.

Over-reliance: There is a risk that developers become

too dependent on ChatGPT capabilities and stop devel-

oping their own skills and knowledge. This could lead

to a decrease in the overall quality of software develop-

ment.

Ethics and liability: The generation of code and other

tasks by language models such as ChatGPT raises eth-

ical and liability issues. Developers must ensure that

decisions made with the help of the model are ethical

and comply with applicable regulations.

In summary, the use of this model in software devel-

opment has the potential to improve productivity and

assist in a variety of tasks. However, it is important to

use it with caution and understand its limitations. Hu-

man supervision and validation of model outputs are

essential to ensure quality and safety in the software

development process.

5 Conclusions

Software development is a constantly evolving ﬁeld and

ChatGPT can play an important role in various stages

of this process, it can be a valuable tool in software

development by providing assistance in various areas,

from planning and design to implementation and trou-

bleshooting.

The importance of ChatGPT in software development

lies in its ability to provide assistance and support at

various stages of the development process. By provid-

ing information and assistance quickly and accurately,

it can help development teams overcome challenges, ac-

celerate project delivery, and keep up with the latest

trends and technologies in the software development

ﬁeld.

The evolution of GPT has been characterized by an in-

crease in model size and capacity, leading to signiﬁcant

improvements in its ability to generate coherent text

and perform more advanced natural language process-

ing tasks. As these models continue to develop, they are

likely to have an increasing impact on a wide variety of

applications.

Conﬂict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conﬂict of inter-

est.

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