OpenAI has introduced some updates for the desktop app of its ChatGPT chatbot. During the penultimate day of its “12 Days of OpenAI” presentation series, the company showcased the new features in a video livestream, where three employees demonstrated how ChatGPT can serve as an assistant in interaction with other apps and programs.
One limitation is that these updates are currently only available for the Mac desktop application, leaving out the majority of potential users who use Windows computers. Many viewers mentioned this issue in the comments section of the video.
Through the “Working with Apps” feature, users of the Mac desktop application can see all the apps where ChatGPT can serve as an assistant. One of the newly integrated apps is the terminal emulator Warp. Since 2023, ChatGPT has been integrated into Warp, with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman being one of the investors.
In a video example, a request is made to show the number of commits per day over the last two months. Warp then provides a code and a list of all days with their respective commits. To display the numbers more clearly, users can now instruct Warp via ChatGPT to present them in the form of a bar chart. For fun, the hosts asked the program to display the chart in a Christmas theme, which Warp achieved by showing the bars in the typical holiday colors of red and green.
ChatGPT can analyze not only the data visible on the screen in Warp but also all the data surrounding the request. Users do not need to scroll or take a screenshot.
OpenAI employees also demonstrated the integration of ChatGPT in XCode. In this Apple development environment, they used the chatbot to generate code, which could be automatically inserted into XCode. However, this worked only on the third attempt during the demonstration.
On the eleventh day of their presentation series, OpenAI also showcased ChatGPT’s established function as a text creator. The bot can work as an assistant in Apple Notes, Quip, or Notion. For example, ChatGPT provided researched information for a city tour of San Francisco in Notion and presented it as a continuous text.
Finally, OpenAI introduced the integration of its Advanced Voice Mode in Apple Notes. The hosts of the video used the enhanced voice control to request feedback on a list of Christmas songs. The program recognized and corrected a deliberately inserted error: instead of “Frosty the Snowman,” they referred to the famous snowman as “Freezy.”
The new assistant features are now available for the Mac app. However, there is no timeline for integration for Windows computers, which many commentators have noted.