OpenAI’s opt-in Computer History captures a local timeline of Mac activity so ChatGPT Work can recover context across selected apps and sites.

OpenAI is launching a new feature for ChatGPT Work and Codex on macOS that sounds quite useful but may also make you feel a bit uneasy.

Computer History is a new optional feature for Pro, Business, and Enterprise users that, with your permission, can watch your day-to-day activity on your computer across apps and websites and turn that into memories and a timeline.

This, OpenAI says, will then allow ChatGPT to answer questions like “What was I debugging yesterday?” or “Where did I leave off on that PR?” — all without having to re-explain the full context of your query. Based on your history, ChatGPT will then be able to find the files, documents, and conversations relevant to your query, no matter whether they were in Google Docs, Slack, or an open browser tab.

Of course, this will also be useful for when you know you read something but have no idea where.

Neither Recall nor Chronicle

It’s important to note that OpenAI says it is doing all of this without constantly taking screenshots of your computer. The company clearly learned from Microsoft’s Recall disaster. Instead, as OpenAI’s Dominik Kundel notes in the announcement video, “Computer History doesn’t rely on screen or audio capture. Instead, it captures interaction events like clicking, typing, app switches, and

Computer History also different from OpenAI’s previous Chronicle research experiment, which had the same goal but used screen captures and OCR to generate its timeline, as well as Record & Replay, a feature for ChatGPT and Codex that lets users demonstrate a workflow and turn it into a reusable skill.
Keeping the user in control

With Computer History, users will get full control over which apps and websites Computer History will have access to. On macOS, there will be a new menu bar entry that allows you to exclude any app from this feature, as well as a new setting in the ChatGPT desktop app that lets you exclude apps and websites. more, so it can capture memories faster and more efficiently.”