OpenAI is making ChatGPT work a little more like older digital assistants with a new feature called Tasks, as reported by TechCrunch and others.
Currently in beta, Tasks allows users to direct the chatbot to send reminders or to generate responses to specific prompts at certain times; recurring tasks are also supported.
The feature is available to Plus, Team, and Pro subscribers starting today, while free users don’t have access.
To create a task, users need to select “4o with scheduled tasks” from the model picker and then direct ChatGPT using the same kind of plain language text prompts that drive everything else it does. ChatGPT will sometimes suggest tasks, too, but they won’t go into effect unless the user approves them.
The user can then make changes to assigned tasks through the same chat conversation, or they can use a new Tasks section of the ChatGPT apps to manage all currently assigned items. There’s currently a 10-task limit.
When the time comes to perform an assigned task, the ChatGPT mobile or desktop app will send a notification on schedule.
This update can be seen as OpenAI’s first step into the agentic AI space, where applications built using deep learning can operate relatively independently within certain boundaries, either replacing or easing the day-to-day responsibilities of information workers.