It’s been less than 20 minutes since OpenAI’s latest product announcement, led by Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil along with Drew Schuster and Thomas Dimson. The highlight? ChatGPT Projects – a new feature that bears a striking resemblance to Perplexity Spaces.
Projects allows users to organize chat conversations into folders and supports uploading various file types including data, images and PDFs. Once you’ve added knowledge to a Project, you can set custom instructions and access familiar tools like search and Canvas.
The demo showcased several practical applications. The chat search function lets users easily browse and reference previous conversations. When creating new projects, you can customize titles and colors for quick sidebar navigation.
They demonstrated an interesting Secret Santa scenario where ChatGPT could randomly assign gift-givers and recipients based on uploaded wishlists, presenting the matches in a clear table format.
The Canvas integration with Projects was another key update. Researchers showed how ChatGPT could draft emails by mimicking writing styles while incorporating complete rules and details from uploaded activity information.
For home management, Projects can store maintenance tasks, smart home settings, and appliance manuals. Though practically speaking, who actually documents household minutiae so thoroughly?
The programming collaboration demo hit some snags. While attempting to recreate and modify a personal website using uploaded templates, resumes and custom instructions through Canvas, the results were incomplete.
Projects will roll out gradually, starting with Plus, Pro and Teams users before expanding to free users and eventually enterprise and education customers in 2024.
Eagle-eyed viewers spotted some Easter eggs during the livestream – a folder labeled with an AGI reference and some intriguing search history.
Reception has been mixed. The most pointed feedback suggests that while the feature is useful, many hope to see OpenAI flex more technical muscle.
OpenAI’s seven-day announcement spree feels somewhat rushed – like a worker’s hasty meals. While they’ve delivered on previous promises like Sora, advanced voice mode, video calls and Apple integration, some speculate bigger releases may be coming, including DALL·E 4, GPT-4.5, and AI Agents.
But perhaps what’s most concerning isn’t more promises – it’s the possibility that next week might not bring even that. We’ll have to wait and see what the final chapter holds.