OpenAI is introducing a provocative new feature to its ChatGPT desktop app for macOS called Computer History, which allows the AI to track user clicks and keystrokes to better understand their workflow. By monitoring these digital footprints, the system builds a detailed timeline of events that both ChatGPT and Codex can reference during future interactions. The goal is to enable the assistant to suggest smart automations and pick up exactly where a user left off on an unfinished task, effectively turning daily computer usage into specialized training data.
To demonstrate the capability, OpenAI showed a preview of the tool identifying the most recent document a developer had edited and verifying whether that file had been shared through Slack. This creates a seamless bridge between different applications, allowing the AI to provide high level recaps of a user’s morning or locate specific pieces of information across various platforms without requiring manual input. While this echoes some of the functionality seen in Microsoft’s contentious Windows Recall project, OpenAI claims there is a key difference in execution because Computer History relies on event logs rather than constant screen captures of images or video.
Privacy remains a central concern with such deep integration, though OpenAI has framed the rollout as an opt in experience rather than something forced upon users by default. Those who choose to enable the feature can maintain some control by excluding specific websites or apps from being tracked and manually deleting individual history entries. Additionally, company representatives have confirmed that any activity occurring within incognito or private browser tabs will be automatically ignored by the tracking mechanism.
