The era of ChatGPT doing stuff for you has arrived.
On Tuesday, OpenAI announced “tasks,” a ChatGPT feature that performs, well, tasks, for users. Tasks, rolling out as a beta feature for ChatGPT Plus, Teams, and Pro users over the next few days, enables users to ask ChatGPT “to do things for you at a future time” said the announcement. “From a weekly news briefing, daily weather updates, or even a reminder when concert tickets go on sale,” think of tasks as scheduled ChatGPT prompt.
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Tasks feels like a familiar combination of Google Alerts, your personal calendar, and ChatGPT’s existing capabilities. But it’s entirely new in the sense that this is OpenAI’s first instance of agentic AI – something that can perform tasks on the user’s behalf.
OpenAI teased that agentic AI would be a big part of its strategy this year. At its 2024 Dev Day, CEO Sam Altman said “2025 is when agents will work,” and during a Reddit AMA, CPO Kevin Weil said ChatGPT messaging users first “is going to be a big theme in 2025.” The concept of AI agents is a big leap from current capabilities that require step-by-step prompting and a significant step towards superintelligence or AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) which is human-level or beyond human-level intelligence.
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The rollout of ChatGPT tasks for doing mundane jobs like checking the weather or sending reminders is deceptively low-key, since what it really signifies is the next phase of OpenAI’s mission to achieve AGI. According to internal documents viewed by Bloomberg, OpenAI has five stages of artificial intelligence, with level three being “agents, systems that can take actions” and level five “organizations, AI that can do the work of an organization,” or superintelligence. That said, reports of AI models hitting a developmental plateau suggests AGI might be farther off than what Altman and OpenAI would have us believe.
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To start using tasks, users can choose “4o with scheduled tasks” from the dropdown menu in ChatGPT. When you send ChatGPT a message in this mode, it will automatically create a task. You can manage tasks from your Profile’s dropdown menu. ChatGPT can also suggest tasks, giving you the option to approve or reject them. Users will receive task messages in the form of push notifications on your browser or macOS system, if you’re using a desktop version and on your phone if you’re using the ChatGPT mobile app.
In addition to creating tasks for news briefs and weather reports, OpenAI says users can also set tasks for things like “Start my day with daily affirmations at 7 a.m.,” or “My kids love knock-knock jokes. Send me one to tell them before bed every night at 6 p.m.”
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Starting today and over the next few days, tasks in beta will roll out globally to Plus, Team, and Pro users on all platforms (web browser, desktop app for Macs, and mobile app) with the tasks manager available only on the web app to start.
