Every time for the past fewer weeks, I’ve received a notification connected my telephone astatine 7:30 successful the morning. The notification comes from ChatGPT, and it ever contains the aforesaid thing: instructions for a 20-minute full-body workout and a 10-minute meditation. The instructions are simple, and I’ve really travel to admit the regular prodding. I do wish it would extremity recommending the nonstop aforesaid point each damn day, though. The upland climbers and affirmative intentions are getting a small old.
OpenAI has added a number of caller features to ChatGPT successful the past fewer weeks, a mates of which effort to move the chatbot into a straightforward productivity app. There’s Tasks, which each paid users tin entree and allows you to group reminders and make to-do lists successful ChatGPT; and there’s Operator, a alleged “agentic” model for Pro subscribers that attempts to really execute tasks connected your behalf. As an incorrigible tester of to-do database apps, I decided to propulsion my life into ChatGPT and spot if it could thief maine get much done.
After utilizing it for a while, I’m sold connected the thought of AI-capable task apps. The champion measurement to usage AI is simply arsenic a measurement to get you started — it’s a brainstorming partner, a sounding board, a first-draft generator — which turns retired to beryllium precisely the point I often request to get going connected a project. Beyond that, though, ChatGPT is simply a unspeakable to-do database app. It’s smart, but it’s besides a mess.
Even adding a task to ChatGPT is excessively complicated. You person to unfastened ChatGPT, prime the correct exemplary — the sanction is “GPT-4o pinch scheduled tasks,” not to beryllium confused pinch the half-dozen different models you tin usage — and past type aliases speak what you want. You tin opportunity 1 task aliases rattle disconnected your full database for the day, and spot what happens. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it fails spectacularly. I’ve had a task connected my database each week that conscionable says “check phone,” and I person virtually nary thought what it’s expected to be.
As agelong arsenic it has notification privileges, ChatGPT will reliably ping you successful an hr to move the laundry, if that’s what you asked for. You tin group recurring tasks, too; successful summation to my workout and meditation, ChatGPT has been reminding maine each 3rd evening to make overnight oats and to return retired the trash each Wednesday. The reminders are conscionable notifications connected your telephone (or emails successful your inbox) pinch a nexus to a connection successful ChatGPT, and I do wish they were a spot richer. But they show up connected time, and that’s something.
That’s astir it for basal to-do database features. There are nary task guidance devices aliases a measurement to easy shape your tasks. I can’t moreover find a measurement to reliably see my full to-do database — asking ChatGPT for a database of each my tasks brings up 1 database and clicking connected the Tasks paper wrong the app brings up another. Some things I added arsenic tasks look to person gone to ChatGPT’s representation characteristic instead, which has perfectly nary relationship whatsoever to the Tasks characteristic isolated from that erstwhile I opportunity “what are my tasks for tomorrow,” it recites the reply from its representation and not from my existent task list. It makes nary sense.
I beautiful quickly whittled my ChatGPT productivity strategy down to tasks that require immoderate benignant of accusation to get started. ChatGPT doesn’t conscionable punctual maine to make overnight oats each 3rd nighttime — it offers maine a caller look I haven’t tried yet. (But it ever has to see blueberries, per my prompts.) When it reminds maine to spell to the market store, it besides suggests a bunch of toddler-friendly things that Trader Joe’s sells. If I request to email someone, it’ll draught the email for me. The accusation successful the messages isn’t ever adjuvant aliases moreover accurate, but I’ve been amazed astatine really useful it is conscionable to person something there arsenic soon arsenic the task appears successful beforehand of me.
The existent victory, though, would beryllium for ChatGPT to conscionable do immoderate of those tasks. That’s wherever Operator comes in: it’s an AI supplier that attempts to really spell retired connected the web and get worldly done. Instead of conscionable reminding maine to make a edifice reservation, book an Airbnb, aliases spell to Trader Joe’s, Operator intends to really do them.
The existent triumph would beryllium for ChatGPT to conscionable do immoderate of those tasks
Operator is, successful my experience, some very awesome and benignant of useless. I asked it to find an Airbnb wrong 2 hours of my location that accepts kids and dogs this April. Right location successful the ChatGPT window, it opened up a virtual Chrome browser and went to airbnb.com. Then the bot asked which play successful April, to which I replied that I didn’t care. Eighteen seconds of browsing later, it asked again: really galore adults, children, and pets? Two, one, and one, I typed back. Operator successfully navigated Airbnb’s confusing interface of drop-downs, and recovered me… a bunch of places to enactment correct down the thoroughfare from my house. In a way, this was a success! And I suppose it’s my responsibility for not being clearer successful the punctual — a quality would understand what I really meant, but ChatGPT simply doesn’t.
I past asked Operator to find maine immoderate cool merch from Schitt’s Creek, a favourite TV show of mine. ChatGPT opened up Chrome, went to Bing (it ever goes to Bing), did a search, and landed connected Etsy. It scrolled astir for a while, seemingly scanning for items pinch tons of reviews and a precocious prima rating, and yet offered maine 3 options pinch links. This is legitimately useful! It’s not difficult work, but it’s busywork I simply didn’t person to do. I picked one, Operator added it to my cart, and past it shared a link. I clicked the link, and my cart was empty. Of people it was: Operator isn’t connected my computer, and it’s not successful my account. If I were a much trusting person, I could person taken complete the browsing convention and fixed Operator my login info and in installments paper details, but alternatively I bailed. I took the 3 links and moved on.
In general, the champion luck I had pinch Operator was pinch tasks that progressive scouring prima ratings aliases immoderate different scannable and quantifiable metric. It could quickly find highly rated recipes for almost thing aliases well-liked movies conscionable by poking done Bing results. Without that outer validation, though, it often conscionable gets lost. And arsenic pinch everything successful the AI world, there’s ever the consequence that accusation will beryllium irrelevant aliases flat-out wrong. Since the stakes of my requests are seldom higher than “what should I navigator for meal coming pinch broccoli and couscous,” though, it hasn’t been an issue.
Still, it’s some nosy and benignant of chaotic conscionable to watch the strategy work. When I asked Operator to find maine a pop-punk performance successful Washington, D.C., sometime successful the adjacent 2 months, it kept uncovering bands, searching Bing to spot if they were pop-punk, past starting complete erstwhile they weren’t. It yet landed connected a website called Hypebot, staring astatine a page for a Hawthorne Heights performance successful April. It was technically much than 2 months away, but it was hands-down the champion reply yet. I wish it had told me! Instead, Operator conscionable gave up.
Somewhere successful each these half-baked, half-useful features is the opening of thing perchance really powerful. A to-do database app that really understands what I request to get done is simply a to-do database app that tin thief maine get it each done. All the generative powerfulness of these AI models for penning emails, making suggestions, uncovering information, drafting documents, and now moreover surfing the web, mixed pinch my priorities and timing, starts to look much for illustration an existent adjunct than immoderate of the alleged “virtual assistants” that are really conscionable conversationalists.
But that is, astatine best, years away. At worst, it’s conscionable ne'er going to get location aliases moreover close. For now, ChatGPT’s productivity strategy is for illustration everything other astir ChatGPT and astir different AI tools. It’s messy, difficult to fig out, and fails often, but it’s still benignant of singular that it useful this well. It’s genuinely useful erstwhile each you request to get started is something. What Tasks and Operator springiness you isn’t much, but it’s often something.
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