ZD 24.38: ChatGPT at 2: Reading and Writing with Canvas
ChatGPT turned two but Canvas was the present you really wanted all along.
In this issue: AI is eating the world, bad gadgets, time zone storage woes, AI art turing test results, ChatGPT protips and a deep dive into ChatGPT Canvas.
The Distilled Spirit
🧠 Software is still Eating the World (Benedict Evans)
Analyst and author Benedict Evans’ annual presentation is a must read. The deck is best consumed alongside Ben’s presentation of it at SLUSH 2024 for color. He argues that while AI is amazing, it is just the next wave of computers doing things computers could not do before. This veteran technologist agrees with the premise.
⏲ Storing Time is Tough (Simon Willison)
Humans use time zones for times. Computers are often not in the same time zone and need to explicitly handle said time zone. This gets more exciting when governments do things like change the rules around daylight savings time, breaking non-trivial software like Exchange 2007. One day we will get to a world without time zones or daylight savings, but until we achieve that utopia programmers will have to account for user intent to maintain user experience.
🖼 AI Art 1, Human Eyes 0 ()
Scott Alexander leveraged his following to do a large scale test of AI art — could humans identify the machine generated versus real. Humans had more trouble identifying AI art — particularly impressionists. Most interesting is that people who hated AI art liked it when they did not know the art was AI. One glimmer of hope for humanity — art experts have a much easier time identifying fakes.
🤖 Make ChatGPT Work For You (Cyber Corsairs)
The title is a little too click-bait for my tastes, but once I got past that I realized this was a very hand set of ChatGPT tips presented fairly effectively. If you are sitting there trying to figure out just how to make your new ChatGPT premium account work for you, this is your jam. Then go read up on Canvases below.
ChatGPT Canvas is the Writing Tool You Need
ChatGPT turned two on November 30! They have been releasing a lot of new features. Even if you are a frequent user, you might have missed a big one. They added an interactive, AI-powered document editor for paid users in early October. Unlike a lot of updates, you have to explicitly engage it. I did not get much chance to try it until recently, but once I did I found it life changing. It is the AI-powered writing tool I need for most circumstances. I wanted to share a few tips on getting started, some ways I'm using it, and a few videos for inspiration.
Getting Started
Currently, you need a paid ChatGPT account to access the Canvas feature. If you want to wait, OpenAI has said that the feature will be available to the free version once it gets out of beta. Another caveat is that this feature is only enabled in the desktop experience. It does not work with the mobile app. The nature does not lend itself to that platform nor voice. If you are a free user, or almost exclusively use the mobile app this will not help you much.
Presuming you are sitting at a computer and using a paid account, you can engage the feature by selecting ChatGPT-4 with Canvas from the Model drop-down at the top left. One thing to note — you can upgrade a normal GPT-4 chat to a Canvas chat with the same drop-down. Once it is turned on, you need to trigger the Canvas feature in your chat. Being direct and telling ChatGPT-4 to "put this into Canvas" works pretty well. If you want to start writing into a blank canvas just tell ChatGPT to "start a new canvas" and you will be presented with a blank document to start collaborating in.
Look Ma, Interactive Document Editing!
Once you have the Canvas open — your screen will convert to two columns, with the ChatGPT thread on the left and your document Canvas on the right — the real fun starts. Here are a few of the things you can do using the tool:
First, foremost, and underrated — you can just write or edit the document in your browser. You can fix the little mistakes AI made manually. You can write key passages and let AI fill in the blanks. You are back in control.
Targeted edits — Have you ever just wanted to ask ChatGPT to fix a specific paragraph but not touch the rest of the document? Now you can! Just highlight and instruct away. Keep it rolling until it gets it right.
Global changes — You can still make global changes. The chat on the left allows you to request rewrites. It has access to most ChatGPT features, including the web and custom GPTs. All the normal tricks still work within the new construct.
Adjust easily — Don't want to think of your own changes? Canvas provides easy sliders for reading level or for adjusting the length, as well as a final polish or add emoji button.
Undo with ease — Have you ever wanted a back button in ChatGPT? Canvases make that easy: just click on "previous version" and back you go.
Canvas is a two-way street — Like everything in ChatGPT, it is also an amazing reading and comprehension tool. You can load a document into a Canvas, use the UI to ask questions about specific bits, or even adjust the reading level using a slider.
It is a very useful, unique feature in ChatGPT that can change the way you work.
Three Videos to Get Started
Here are three videos to get you started. Even if you are familiar with the feature, the third is worth a look for inspiration.
If you like the TikTok-style voiceover tutorials — which I will admit are actually pretty good — then this video is for you. It provides a great rundown on the features of the tool in a disturbingly catchy way.
If those sorts of videos are not your thing, this is the introduction for you. Unlimited Coach does an excellent 10-minute walkthrough editing a document. If you like a very real, slower-paced example, this is your jam.
AI Foundations shows a dozen different ways to use Canvas. Some of these are truly creative. It is a bit long at 33 minutes, but it is worth the investment if you are Canvas-curious. If I watched one of these videos, this would be the one.
The Look
One takeaway from Ben Evans 2024 report: the price of high quality AI is rapidly trending towards zero. What a time to be alive.
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