Code Interpreter for Bioinformatics: Are We There Yet?

Abstract

The Code Interpreter feature in ChatGPT has the potential to democratize data analysis for non-specialists. As bioinformaticians, we are impressed by its performance in data manipulation and visualization. However, bioinformatics tasks often require execution of third-party packages, access to annotation knowledgebase, and handling large datasets. Code Interpreter’s exclusive support for Python, no installation option for additional packages, inability to utilize external resources, and limited storage capacity could pose obstacles to its wide adoption in bioinformatics applications. To address these limitations, we advocated for the necessity of locally deployable, API-based systems for chatbot-aided bioinformatics applications.