ChatGPT may be about to make your job way easier

The latest version of ChatGPT could turn the artificial-intelligence tool into a personal assistant — including at work.

Among the new features that OpenAI highlighted on Monday: You can pull up ChatGPT on your computer desktop or smartphone screen and show it whatever you're looking at, whether it's a math problem on a whiteboard or a screen full of code.

In one demo during OpenAI's presentation on its newest model powering the chatbot, GPT-4o (that's the letter O, not zero), ChatGPT suggested changes to code in real time on a user's computer.

At first, ChatGPT was known for its command-prompt-like interface, which allows users to type in questions or requests for images. Last fall, OpenAI added a voice mode, allowing users to ask questions like they would with Alexa or Siri — albeit with a more sophisticated model responding.

But with GPT-4o, users can now show ChatGPT what they're working on and get real-time feedback.

In another example, ChatGPT gave a one-sentence summary of a line graph when an OpenAI employee pulled it up on his desktop.

For anyone who codes or handles data for a living, it's not hard to imagine how the latest version of ChatGPT could make work easier.

ChatGPT can also give feedback on work in the real world. In Monday's demo, OpenAI employees showed the tool, via smartphone camera, a simple algebra problem written on a whiteboard.

Eventually, ChatGPT gave them hints on how to solve an unknown variable, giving them feedback at different stages.

GPT-4o marks "the first time that we are really making a huge step forward when it comes to the ease of use," OpenAI's chief technology officer, Mira Murati, told an audience at the company's offices as Monday's presentation kicked off.

Correction: May 13, 2024 — A previous version of this story referred to the latest version of ChatGPT by the wrong name. It is still called ChatGPT, not ChatGPT-4o. GPT-4o is the new model that powers the chatbot.