ChatGPT’s New Canvas Feature Turns It Into an AI-Powered Word Processor
Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, people have used it and other generative AI tools for both writing and coding with varying degrees of success. OpenAI appears to be banking on its models being functional collaboration tools, as it is now introducing ” canvas “, a feature that essentially turns ChatGPT into an AI-powered word processor.
Canvas is built on the OpenAI GPT-4o model . So, you can select “ChatGPT 4o with Canvas” from the list of models to actively enable this feature. However, OpenAI also created a canvas to run automatically based on a prompt. For example, if you ask ChatGPT to write a blog post, the canvas should open. (You can also just ask ChatGPT to open a canvas for you.) OpenAI says it has also trained this feature to avoid triggering when you ask ChatGPT for help with things that likely wouldn’t require such a complex editing process.
When active, the canvas opens your request in a new window, displaying the text or code as if it were in Google Docs or Word. From here you can continue writing like any other word processor: the idea is not to let ChatGPT do all the work, as you can continue writing whatever you want at any time.
Of course, you can turn to ChatGPT for help when a write lock occurs. You can highlight individual words, sentences, or paragraphs, and while you have access to formatting options like bold, italics, and heading size, you can also click “Ask ChatGPT” to learn about your choices. I typed “hello” at the bottom of my text, highlighted it, and asked ChatGPT if that word was inappropriate. Instead of giving me an answer, ChatGPT simply removed the word and said it “removed the word ‘hello’ which seemed inappropriate.”
When your canvas is configured for text (rather than code) input, you’ll find five main ChatGPT shortcuts in the bottom right corner of the window:
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Add Emoji: This option automatically distributes emoji throughout the document with “matching” icons. It’s probably not useful unless you really want to piss off the person you’re sending this message to.
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Add final revision: ChatGPT will check your text for grammar and clarity and automatically make changes accordingly.
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Change Reading Level: This option adjusts the reading level of your work. You can choose from kindergarten, middle school, high school, college, and graduate school. In my experience, in graduate school, “big” words like “imperative” and “facilitate” are accidentally thrown in, while I think kindergartners would have a hard time reading what ChatGPT considers work written at their reading level.
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Adjust length: You can choose to have ChatGPT make your snippet longer or shorter.
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Suggest changes. Select this option and ChatGPT will review your snippet and highlight parts where changes can be made. It’s like the editor is handing you back a Google Doc with notes embedded. You can automatically apply or reject any of these offers. For example, ChatGPT twice asked me to remove emojis it added. I refused.
With Canvas, OpenAI competes to some extent with other generative AI writing tools, most notably Anthropic’s Artifacts , which allows you to move content into a dedicated window. Apple Intelligence also comes to mind , since you can call on Apple’s artificial intelligence to help rewrite your text at any time. Of course, this is also similar to AI assistants in dedicated word processors such as Gemini in Google Docs or Copilot in Microsoft Word .
Ideally, I could see this feature having some merit. An AI editor can be useful for pointing out places in your text that could be clearer, helping you become a better writer and self-editer. In practice, however, it suffers from the usual problems that generative AI text is known for : for example, changing reading level, especially increasing it, usually means clumsily replacing larger words whenever the bot finds an opportunity. I also found many of the editing suggestions to be a bit gimmicky or an attempt to take away the personality of the text. It’s still in beta, but as with most AI writing tools, I’ll hand over the canvas to work with.
Canvas is also designed for code editing. I don’t know how to code so I can’t speak from personal experience, but OpenAI says coding shortcuts include:
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Code review. Similar to Suggest Changes, this option suggests inline changes to your code.
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Add Logs: This option adds print statements to help you debug and understand your code.
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Add Comments: Inserts comments next to the code to make it easier to understand.
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Fix bugs: Find problems and rewrite code to fix them.
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Language Translation: Translates code into JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Java, C++ or PHP.
If you want to try out the Canvas beta, you’ll need to be a ChatGPT Plus or Teams subscriber. If yes, then this feature is currently missing. As OpenAI continues to test it, the company will release it to free accounts in the future.