Since early March, OpenAI has been publicly working on a “super” desktop application designed to combine ChatGPT, its Codex coding agent and the Atlas web browser under one roof. In April, the company began laying the groundwork for that project, and now it’s taking its biggest step toward realizing that vision with the release of ChatGPT Work. OpenAI describes its latest offering as something of a generic production agent. Where Codex is primarily designed for coding projects, OpenAI says Work is here to help people with some of their most important tasks.
To achieve that, the ChatGPT project includes almost all the major technologies that the company has been working on in recent months. To begin with, it is powered by OpenAI’s new family of GPT-5.6 models, the release of which was temporarily delayed by the Trump administration. More people will access ChatGPT Work with the redesigned ChatGPT app, where you can now find ChatGPT, new agent and Codex all in one place. Building on the OpenAI mobile integration released in May at Codex, ChatGPT Work includes support for task scheduling, meaning you can tell the agent to start working on something on your phone and it will exit the task remotely. After returning to your desk, you can track its progress using your web browser or the ChatGPT desktop application. With the latter, ChatGPT Task can take advantage of its built-in computing capabilities to perform tasks across your applications and web browser, allowing the agent to move files when needed.
A new integrated plugin directory lets you connect ChatGPT to your favorite apps and tools. When writing information, you can type “@” followed by the name of the application you want ChatGPT to use or pull content from to complete your request. The chatbot will also recommend relevant apps during your conversations. As part of that integration, OpenAI notes that you can also use task scheduling to automate busy work. For example, the company suggests that ChatGPT can review your Slack updates and generate a summary of all the messages you’ve received during the week. “You still control how ChatGPT works with you,” the company says. “You decide what it can access, when it should go in, and when it needs your approval before taking action.”
As mentioned, ChatGPT’s redesigned desktop app now includes a built-in browser. In addition to extracting information from websites, the chatbot can generate web applications through a feature called Sites. “Sites are useful when you want to create things like live dashboards, project trackers, launch calendars, prototypes, internal portals, and interactive reports,” explains OpenAI. As part of today’s announcement, the company says it plans to discontinue Atlas. OpenAI’s James Sun, who worked on Atlas, said the company is targeting August 9 for the withdrawal, and promised to share more information about that in the future.
OpenAI is starting the release of ChatGPT today; the company expects to complete the rollout within the next 24 hours. If you’re using ChatGPT with a free account, you can try the new agent through the ChatGPT desktop app, available for Mac and Windows. Plus and Pro subscribers, on the other hand, can use the ChatGPT Service through the ChatGPT web client, in addition to the aforementioned desktop application.
