اختبار «تشات جي بي تي كانفاس»: تحسينات جذرية وصعوبات التطوير

"ChatGPT Canvas" : Radical Improvements and Development Challenges

The word "Chat" in the name "ChatGPT" aptly summarizes one of the main reasons behind the massive impact of the AI-powered assistant launched by OpenAI. For years, we've used computers and phones to chat with others – at least since the advent of AOL Instant Messenger. So, engaging in a conversation with a program, using a very similar interface, may not seem like a major leap.

However, ChatGPT's focus on chat may be a hurdle in a way, because it's not possible to express all the tasks one needs in a simple two-way dialogue.

From Chat to Writing

For example, the task of writing requires a tool more akin to a word processor, offering ample space for drafting text and the ability to make edits. This need doesn't change just because you happen to be collaborating with an AI-powered assistant on the writing task.

Recently, OpenAI released a new version of ChatGPT that takes this scenario into account. The new version is called "ChatGPT 4o with Canvas", which is a new option available to subscribers of the "ChatGPT Plus" models list, designed with writing and coding in mind.

At first glance, it may look like the usual ChatGPT. But, if you ask it to write something, it might decide to put the results in a large document window, moving the chat to the left. If you make other requests, it will update the window instead of starting over. The app allows you to edit the text yourself, or to launch a blank document and enter your own material, like something you want to summarize. There are also options to polish prose, check grammar, adjust reading level, and shorten or lengthen text.

Improvements and Challenges

For AI tasks that rely heavily on text, Canvas provides a radical improvement to the traditional ChatGPT interface. However, it still seems incomplete at this point, especially as I haven't been able to get large parts of it to run on Safari through my Mac or iPad. At one point, the app inexplicably devoured parts of the text I had already pasted (fortunately, you can revert to earlier versions).

The program can also use basic tools, at least, to handle the documents it creates, such as the ability to rename them and see them all in one place.

Theoretically, Canvas helps make ChatGPT closer, in terms of interface and functionality, to Google AI's tool known as "NotebookLM". This tool was launched late last year, and is a research tool that has been enhanced to serve writers whose work includes reference materials - text files, such as interview transcripts, web pages, and PDF files, even audio files. Once you enter these items into the app, it will summarize them for you, answer your questions about them, and even suggest questions you should ask.

Comparisons with Google Tools

Generally, much of what you can achieve using NotebookLM can be achieved with close results using any AI chat robot. However, I can't help but be impressed with the quality of its summaries and its ability to identify relevant facts faster than I can on my own. And, as with ChatGPT with Canvas, aspects not directly related to AI remain incomplete: for example, I definitely wish I could rearrange the notes I make. Still, it's on the short list of AI tools that have truly impacted my productivity.

On the other hand, I enjoy it more than I feel helped by the new "Audio Overview" feature in NotebookLM, which is becoming widely available now. Give it some time, and you'll soon find it creating a simulated "podcast", starring two AI hosts discussing any topic you upload to the app. In fact, the degree to which their chatter sounds human is amazing, even though the gist of the conversation may tend to be superficial, and their artificial enthusiasm for anything they talk about can be funny. (For the experiment, I created a "podcast" where two AI hosts discussed the feeling of watching paint dry. It turned out to be great!).

A Distinctive Technological Achievement

Overall, I see Audio Overview as a stunning and intriguing technological feat. It managed to entice me to the point where I spent half a day pumping material into it just to see what would come of it in the end. However, the program seems out of place inside an app dedicated to serious research. In fact, it seemed to me to be closer to a serious symposium on library science, where the organizers hired a magician to showcase his skills in sleight of hand related to books; something that may be a harbinger that Notebook is starting to lose its compass.

Challenges of Mature Smart Applications

The bigger risk associated with both NotebookLM and ChatGPT 4o with Canvas is that neither will reach maturity, and then stick around.

The fact is that Google (which describes NotebookLM as "experimental") has a legendary history of abandoning its products – even some of the great beloved ones. OpenAI, which says Canvas is in beta, is busy with huge tasks on a very large scale, making it impossible to know where Canvas will end up in its many priorities.

Traditional Writing Applications

All this makes me more grateful for two apps that have proven their worth over time and I find indispensable. After I decided to stop using Evernote last year, I now take my notes using a nice app that works on Mac, iPad, and iPhone, called "Bear".

And, for writing projects that involve research and go beyond a few hundred words, I use an iPad-friendly version of "Scrivener", an app that has legendary popularity among writers of long writing styles.

In addition to being excellent, there's another common element between Bear and Scrivener: they're both flagship products of very small companies. Both are thoughtful, focused, and feature-rich in a way that often happens when a developer's attention is focused on a few products, and the company strives to make these products worthy of the money paid for them.

It's worth noting that neither Bear nor Scrivener has any clear AI-related uses. I'm not sure if that reflects a conscious decision on the part of their creators, or simply a lack of resources. But it does bother me, just because the day may come when small developers find themselves unable to compete in AI in a way that threatens their survival, in the face of OpenAI and Google.

However, it should be noted here that Bear and Scrivener are about to acquire some AI functionality without the slightest effort on their part, because Apple's new AI features, due to be released, include a number of writing tools that will be available through iOS, iPadOS, and macOS, including rewrite, review, summarize, and format options. While they don't emulate the more ambitious aspects of Canvas and NotebookLM, they will provide every app that includes text input with a basic level of AI capabilities.

I hope that ChatGPT with Canvas and NotebookLM will move beyond their current status as prototypes.

I see that, like many generative AI products, the two already have amazing performance, but that's not enough to guarantee their longevity.

• Fast Company Magazine - Tribune Media Services