OpenAI on Thursday introduced a new way to interact with ChatGPT: an interface it calls “Canvas.” In addition to the normal chat window, the product opens a separate window with a workspace for writing and coding projects. Users can generate text or code directly in the canvas and then mark sections of the work to have the model edited. Canvas is rolling out in beta to ChatGPT Plus and Teams users on Thursday and to Enterprise and Edu users next week.

Several consumer AI vendors are focusing on editable workspaces as a practical way to leverage generative AI. ChatGPT’s new interface offers similar features to Anthropic’s Artifacts, which launched in June, and viral coding companion Cursor. OpenAI is committed to keeping up with competitors’ offerings and introducing entirely new features to ChatGPT to grow its paying user base.

Today, AI chatbots can’t complete large projects with a single prompt, but they can often provide a good starting point. Editable workspaces like Canvas allow users to correct erroneous portions of an AI chatbot’s output without having to closely examine their prompt and generate an entirely new section of code.

“This is simply a more natural interface for collaboration with ChatGPT,” said OpenAI product manager Daniel Levine in a demo with TechCrunch.

In our demo, Levine had to select “GPT-4o with Canvas” from ChatGPT’s model selection drop-down window. However, OpenAI says Canvas windows pop up simply when ChatGPT detects that a separate workspace might be helpful, such as for longer output or complex coding tasks. You can also just write “Use Canvas” to automatically open a project window.

Levine showed TechCrunch how ChatGPT’s new features can help when writing an email. Users can ask ChatGPT to generate an email, which will then be displayed in the Canvas window. Users can then toggle a slider to adjust the length of the font shorter or longer. You can also highlight specific sentences and ask ChatGPT to make changes, such as: B. “This is supposed to sound friendlier” or adding emojis. Users can also ask ChatGPT to rewrite the entire email as-is in another language.

The features for the Coding Canvas are slightly different. Levine asked ChatGPT to create an API web server in Python, which appeared in the Canvas window. By clicking the “Add Comments” button, ChatGPT adds inline documentation to explain the code in plain English. Additionally, if you highlight a section of code created by ChatGPT, you can ask the chatbot to explain it to you or ask questions about it. ChatGPT also gets a new Review Code button that suggests specific changes to the code in the window, whether generated or written by the user, for them to approve, self-edit, or reject. If they click “Approve,” ChatGPT will attempt to fix the errors itself.

Once Canvas is out of beta, OpenAI plans to offer the feature to free users.