Eyes up, Claude.
Rolling out starting today, the new ChatGPT does a little — scratch that — a lot of everything, including coding, web browsing, publishing to the web, and even controlling your PC. Any similarities to the Claude desktop app and Claude Cowork are quite surely intentional.
With the revamped ChatGPT (available now for Mac users, with a Windows version coming in the next few days) comes a new agent, called ChatGPT Work, that promises to tackle your most complex projects with a simple prompt. Powering it all is GPT-5.6, OpenAI’s newest family of AI models.
It’s a lot to take in, and as I’ve only played with the new ChatGPT for less than an hour, I have a lot more experimenting to do before I can render any opinions.
For now, I’ll just tick off some of the basics, starting with the fact that the old ChatGPT Desktop app is turning into ChatGPT Classic. OpenAI’s separate Codex app, meanwhile, is morphing into the new ChatGPT, and it can be used in two modes: Work and Codex.
ChatGPT’s Codex mode is still for AI-assisted coding, while Work is for general office productivity, allowing you to connect files and apps for tasks ranging from finance and business operations to sales and marketing.
During a demo, OpenAI staffers showed off the new ChatGPT and ChatGPT Work, the new GPT-5.6-powered agent, poring over company documents and compiling slick reports in seconds, ready for instant distribution to the team.
It was one of those “holy cow!” AI demos that strike me as a) technically impressive but b) not the greatest idea in practice — shouldn’t a human look over that report before handing it out? Still, I’ll hold my skepticism until I have more of a chance to kick the tires.
In another demo, we got to see ChatGPT’s new computer use abilities, with ChatGPT taking control of the Apple Notes app and organizing the various notes into folders, all on its own, and just like the Claude desktop app can do.
The new ChatGPT app also offers browser tabs, meaning there’s no need to leave ChatGPT when it comes to visual web searches. Speaking of the web, ChatGPT Work is fully accessible via the web, while a new Sites feature lets you publish and share ChatGPT Work projects instantly.
Underpinning the all-new ChatGPT is GPT-5.6, which (as we learned a couple of weeks ago) comes in three flavors: the flagship Sol, the everyday Terra, and the fast and lean Luna. Aside from picking a GPT-5.6 model, you can also choose an effort level, ranging from Standard all the way to Ultra (for Sol).
Unlike Fable, the best-in-class Claude model that Anthropic will soon be yanking from Claude subscription plans, ChatGPT subscribers will be getting sustained access to the new models (which were previously in a closed preview pending a U.S. government review). That said, not all ChatGPT subscribers will get access to every GPT-5.6 flavor and effort level, and the exact models and effort levels you do get depend on the ChatGPT application you’re using.
It’s all pretty confusing, but suffice to say that free ChatGPT users and budget Go plan subscribers get the least amount of GPT-5.6 access (those users only get Terra for ChatGPT Work and Codex, for example). And while $20-a-month ChatGPT Plus users will get a crack at GPT-5.6 Sol, only Pro and better subscribers get dibs on the highest Sol versions (there’s a Sol Pro) and effort levels.
Personally, I’ve yet to see GPT-5.6 Sol appear via my ChatGPT Plus plan; reached for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson said GPT-5.6 will have a “gradual rollout over the next 24 hours.”
Again, there’s a lot to unpack with the new ChatGPT, along with a lot more questions. How will ChatGPT handle security and privacy when it comes to computer use? What should we know about publishing projects on the web with ChatGPT’s Sites feature? What agentic safeguards can we expect from ChatGPT Work? Most importantly, how quickly will all this new functionality burn through our ChatGPT usage windows?
We’ll find out more as we take the revamped ChatGPT for a spin over the next several days, but one thing’s for sure: The Claude desktop app now has some serious competition on its hands.
Author: Ben Patterson
Source: PCWorld
Reviewed By: Editorial Team
