I test ChatGPT features for a living, and this new one really did supercharge my productivity

OpenAI is continually including new options to ChatGPT to make it extra practical for on a regular basis wants and extra important in our workflows. The newest of those updates is a new canvas feature — unveiled final week — that has left me past impressed. 

In the event you use ChatGPT as a co-editor in any capability, you’ll by no means once more use ChatGPT with out this function. Canvas is a brand new interface that makes collaborating in your writing and coding initiatives simpler with ChatGPT. The idea is finest understood visually, so keep on with me. Here is how Canvas works.

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The interface

In case you are a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, you possibly can select the “GPT-4o with canvas” beta from the mannequin selector dropdown within the ChatGPT interface. Upon choice, your web page could look the identical, however when you enter your challenge, you will note the magic occur. 

For my instance walk-through, I will use an essay I revealed as an undergrad. (I do not use any AI instruments to edit or write my ZDNET articles in any capability.) I copied and pasted the essay textual content into the textbox with the immediate: “Are you able to assist me edit this piece?” 

As you possibly can see under, it mechanically opened a brand new interface by which my edited challenge was positioned on the precise facet of the display, my preliminary immediate was on the left, and a textbox was accessible to ask extra questions. With this interface, irrespective of what number of questions you ask, or what number of edits are made, your challenge will at all times stay in the identical spot on the precise, supplying you with straightforward visibility as to what it’s wanting like after every edit, and the way it fares subsequent to the unique.

What makes Canvas a game-changer? Usually, while you ask ChatGPT to revise the textual content, the AI outputs the brand new model as the following message, making it tough to match the unique and edited piece side-by-side and hold monitor of the adjustments. 

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Though ChatGPT has superior writing abilities, it is nonetheless AI and vulnerable to hallucinations, so it is helpful to double-check edits. Retaining monitor of the edits can be helpful as a result of it helps you be taught from the adjustments and presumably implement them subsequent time. It additionally prevents you from having to scroll up and down repeatedly by your dialog to seek out the recommendations and edits. 

The shortcuts 

One other game-changing component of this format is the shortcuts. On the precise web page the place your challenge lives, a button within the backside within the decrease proper nook — represented by a pencil — consists of 4 one-click shortcuts that may rework your challenge with a click on. 

The writing shortcuts assist customers alter lengths, change studying ranges, add emojis, and “add ultimate polish,” which checks for grammar, readability, and consistency. The coding shortcuts can overview code, add logs, add feedback, repair bugs, and port to a language. The buttons are a fast and environment friendly strategy to implement the change you need with out utilizing textual content prompts. 

Here is one other handy instrument: While you spotlight a portion of your challenge, one other set of shortcuts will seem. This time, Canvas lets you change the formatting with choices akin to daring, italicize, or change textual content kind and ask ChatGPT straight for assist with that particular part. 

As soon as the edit on that particular part is full, it is going to mirror within the bigger challenge, maintaining the remainder of the challenge intact and solely altering what the person requested — which helps the person keep organized. 

What in regards to the high quality of the edits? As a result of Canvas makes use of GPT-4o — OpenAI’s most superior, well-rounded mannequin — the edits made are precious and enhance the general high quality of the textual content. In the event you ask for a normal edit, it is not going to solely search for issues like grammar and spelling (as Grammarly does) however will test for syntax.

The fee 

Sadly, all the wonders described above will come at a price. To entry the function proper now, you must be a ChatGPT Plus subscriber, which prices $20 per thirty days. In case you are a ChatGPT energy person, the associated fee could also be justified because it comes with different perks, akin to the new Voice Mode and limitless image generations.

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Enterprise and Edu customers will get entry to Canvas this week, in keeping with OpenAI,  and ChatGPT free customers will achieve entry sooner or later as soon as the instrument is out of beta.