Paid users of OpenAI's ChatGPT can now ask their AI assistant to schedule reminders and recurring requests. A new beta feature called Tasks will begin rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users worldwide this week.
Tasks allows users to set simple reminders in ChatGPT, such as “Notify me when my passport expires in 6 months,” and on any platform where Tasks is enabled, the AI assistant will follow up with a push notification. Users can now make recurring requests to ChatGPT, such as “Every Friday, tell me your weekend plans based on my location and weather forecast” or “Give me a news summary every day at 7am.” I did.
New Task Manager for ChatGPT's Web APP (Credit: OpenAI)
The new task feature appears to be OpenAI's first step toward AI models, also known as AI agents, that can operate somewhat independently. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman says 2025 will be a big year for AI agents, even claiming that they will “join the workforce” this year. Tasks is a fairly limited version of the agent system, but allows users to set reminders using ChatGPT. This is a practical feature that most people expect from assistants like Siri and Alexa. Scheduled information requests are more unique and present new capabilities not possible with previous digital assistants.
Users can access tasks by selecting 4o in Scheduled Tasks from the ChatGPT drop-down menu. From there, you can send a message to ChatGPT telling the AI assistant the reminder or action you want to create. OpenAI says ChatGPT may suggest certain tasks based on your chats. Users can set and manage tasks by chatting with the AI assistant on any platform or through a dedicated task manager tab available only in the web app.
With the Tasks feature, ChatGPT now lets you browse the web on a set schedule, but it doesn't allow you to perform continuous searches or make purchases in the background. For example, you can tell ChatGPT to check for concert tickets to see your favorite artists in your area once a month, but you can also tell ChatGPT to alert you the moment a ticket becomes available. You can't direct them, and ChatGPT can't buy tickets for you. However, this is a step towards those systems.
OpenAI will use this beta period to learn more about how people use tasks before making the feature widely available in its mobile apps and ChatGPT's free tier. In this beta release, the company says it is not possible to set up tasks via Advanced Voice Mode.
AI assistants based on large-scale language models are pushing the boundaries of what computers can do, but they still struggle with some simple tasks that can be done on smartphones. OpenAI, Google, and other AI model developers have had to come up with clever workarounds to have Assistant set timers and create reminders. Although these tasks are relatively low-risk, OpenAI wants to enable ChatGPT to perform more complex tasks in the future.
OpenAI is preparing to release a more advanced agent system, including an agent called Operator that you can write code to book travel with. According to Bloomberg, the system could be rolled out in the coming weeks.
As agent systems become more sophisticated, more potential problems arise. Tasks shows that the agent's capabilities are fairly controlled and selected, but OpenAI's safety measures will likely be tested in the coming months as it rolls out more independent AI systems. there is.