You no longer need to go to the OpenAI page to use the ChatGPT functions, thanks to the Merlin Chrome extension the magic will be done directly in any browser tab and just one click away.
Generative Artificial Intelligence chatbots are more topical than ever thanks to the new improvements in recognition and interpretation that the latest version of ChatGPT-4 has brought .
We have already told you about many of the novelties that this new generation of ChatGPT brings , which allows you to use images and videos as data entry sources to generate responses. But one of the main pitfalls in using it is that until now it had to be run in a separate tab from the OpenAI page.
That inconvenience is solved by Merlin’s Google Chrome extension that allows you to use ChatGPT from any web page by automatically detecting page content and providing contextual responses based on it.
This allows you to generate search results summaries, transcribe YouTube videos to text, generate texts based on the theme of the web content you are visiting, and even generate responses using the GPT-4 model that is currently only available to ChatGPT users. Plus and the Bing Artificial Intelligence chatbot.
Install the Merlin extension in Google Chrome
The first step to using Merlin from Google Chrome will be to install the extension in the browser. To do this you just have to look for it in the Chrome Web Store extensions store .
Merlin is compatible with Chromium-based browsers, including Google Chrome, but also Vivaldi, Brave, or Opera. It is out of the compatibility list of Microsoft Edge, which despite being based on Chromium, is not compatible with Merlin.
On the Merlin extension page, click Add to Chrome. Another dialog will appear warning you that Merlin can read your data on all websites. This may seem a bit aggressive for privacy policies, but it is an essential requirement for the service since they must know what you are seeing in order to contextualize it with your queries and the text you select, for example.
Merlin’s terms of use specify that this access is limited to the content of web pages, but that the extension does not collect personal information or IP addresses of the devices you use.
Continue clicking Add Extension in the pop-up window to resume the installation process.
Next, you will need to open the extension from the icon that appears to the right of your browser’s search bar and you will need to sign up with a Google account or email to start using ChatGPT through Merlin. Once this requirement is met, restart Google Chrome and Merlin will be ready to go.
What you can do with the Merlin extension in Google Chrome
With Merlin already installed in the browser, you can contextualize your ChatGPT queries with inline content directly from its source, without having to copy or paste it into the ChatGPT prompt .
This makes using ChatGPT much more comfortable and organic since all you have to do is select a text from any browser page and press Alt+M on Windows or Command+M on Mac, or right-click and choose the Give Context to Merlin option to invoke the extension and include the selected text in a popup window with a ChatGPT prompt ready to ask your query.
The free version of Merlin is limited to 51 free queries per day with ChatGPT-3, but each ChatGPT-4 query will consume 10 credits, so if you prefer to use the more advanced model the queries are limited to 5 per day for free.
In addition to solving doubts about the selected text on any website, Merlin allows you to rewrite text that you select, automatically compose emails using ChatGPT, and write formulas for MS Excel or code for basic applications in different programming languages. Ultimately, Merlin can be used for anything ChatGPT can do from its own page.
Apply ChatGPT on YouTube videos or Google searches
Another of the additional functions provided by the Merlin extension in Google Chrome is the integration with certain services such as YouTube or the Google search engine which, in addition to obtaining a context for queries, saves a lot of time by making an index of the most outstanding points of videos, summarizing articles on the web or making it easier for you to search for content.
When accessing the YouTube page from the browser, you will see that a Merlin Summarize button has been added next to the usual YouTube Like button, as well as an additional bar next to the video window.
Pressing this button creates an index with the most interesting points of each video and a time button that, when pressed, takes you directly to the minute of the video where that topic is discussed.
Merlin also helps you with content searches by synthesizing the results of the queries you make from Google, although it has only worked for us when we have done the search from Google.com, not from Google.es.
To do this, you only have to make a query from the Google query bar and Merlin will get to work showing a pop-up window with a summary of the results that have appeared in your search, which can appear either on the side of the browser or right at the bottom of the results page.
This is just one of the options that make it easy to access the Artificial Intelligence features of ChatGPT by integrating it directly into Google Chrome.
