OPENAI ADDS VISUAL INTERFACE AND TEEN COLLEGE PLANNER TO CHATGPT

OpenAI has begun rolling out a new ChatGPT interface called Intelligent UI, launching alongside a new GPT-6 model, according to the company. The feature adds visual and interactive elements to conversations, including tappable buttons, customised calculators, interactive charts and editable graphs, rather than static images, OpenAI says. Separately, OpenAI is introducing a College Planner tool within ChatGPT for Teens, the mode for teenage users introduced in August with safeguards and break reminders. OpenAI says the tool will bring together application requirements, deadlines, tasks and financial aid steps for schools on a student's list, allowing students to track progress and ask ChatGPT questions along the way.

The College Planner is due to arrive "soon," OpenAI says, and will initially focus on students in grades 10 through 12 in the United States who are planning to apply to four-year colleges. OpenAI is also adding study-related features to ChatGPT, including a continuous multi-photo capture tool on iOS that lets users upload several photos at once and combine them into a single PDF, as well as a flashcard generator that creates study cards from users' notes. The announcements follow a report from Common Sense Media, which described ChatGPT for Teens as an "unacceptable risk," saying the tool still completes children's homework and fails to send alerts to parents in some cases where it should.

In response to that report, OpenAI said teenage users spend "under 15 minutes a day" on ChatGPT on average. The company has not given a specific launch date for the College Planner tool beyond saying it will arrive soon. OpenAI's wider rollout of Intelligent UI accompanies the introduction of its new GPT-6 model.