Welcome, AI Freedom Finders

If you’re reading this newsletter, chances are you know what ChatGPT is. This week we dive into a new feature they have added to their paid plans:
Tasks.

It’s still very early days for Tasks, but I want to show you the potential benefits and future opportunities of having AI take care of repetitive tasks.

In today’s Brief:

• Become an AI Freedom Finder 🔎

• AI Transforming Local Council Services in the UK 🤖

• AI Struggles to get Historical Facts Right Accurately 🕰️

• OpenAI's Autonomous AI Agent Gets Ready to Launch 🚀

Today’s Feature:

ChatGPT Tasks: How to automate recurring tasks 🔄

Become an AI Freedom Finder 🔎

The Brief: Today we are pre-launching our free AI community: The AI Freedom Finders.

You can join by clicking here.

Details:

• Every week we will be updating the community with videos, guides and tutorials as to how you can use AI.

• There will be a community of like-minded people: people who want to get to grips with AI but maybe aren’t yet fully up-to-speed with it.

• We are running weekly Q&A sessions too.

• Opportunity to be the first to get access to exclusive content.

Why It Matters:

AI is not going away. In much the same way as the internet has revolutionised the way we all work over the past 20 years, AI will do the same over the next 20. We want to help as many people as possible to understand and evolve WITH AI so they aren’t left behind. This community is the best start to that journey.

AI Transforming Local Council Services

The Brief: Northamptonshire councils are pioneering AI pilot projects across public services, aiming to improve efficiency in homelessness, education, and customer support while maintaining staff roles.

Details:

• West Northamptonshire Council is piloting three AI projects focusing on homelessness, special educational needs, and customer services.

• North Northamptonshire Council plans to trial AI for note-taking in adult social care and potentially improve website and customer service channels.

• Local leaders believe AI can enhance service efficiency without reducing staff, shifting employees towards more rewarding work tasks.

• Councils view digital innovation as crucial for improving productivity and service delivery to residents and businesses in the future.

Why It Matters:

Local government is quietly pioneering practical AI applications, demonstrating how technology can transform public services by improving efficiency, identifying vulnerable populations earlier, and redirecting staff towards more strategic, meaningful work.

AI Struggles to get Historical Facts Right Accurately 🕰️

The Brief: AI models like GPT-4 struggle with historical accuracy, scoring just 46% on a comprehensive benchmark, revealing significant limitations in nuanced historical understanding and knowledge of Large Language Models (LLMs).

Details:

• AI language models struggled to answer complex historical questions accurately, with GPT-4 Turbo achieving only 46% accuracy on the Hist-LLM benchmark.

• Researchers found LLMs tend to extrapolate from prominent historical data, leading to incorrect answers about more obscure historical facts and periods.

• The study revealed potential regional biases in AI models, particularly in their performance on historical questions about sub-Saharan Africa.

• Despite current limitations, researchers remain optimistic about AI's future potential to assist historians by improving training data and question complexity.

Why It Matters:

AI's historical knowledge is surprisingly superficial, revealing critical limitations in understanding nuanced human history. This underscores the irreplaceable value of human expertise and academic rigour in interpreting complex historical narratives.

OpenAI's Autonomous AI Agent Gets Ready to Launch 🚀

The Brief: OpenAI has launched Operator in test mode to those on the highest paid plan. Operator, AI agent capable of autonomously performing digital tasks (ordering your online shop, book you a holiday…), with promising potential but current performance limitations in complex computer interactions.

Details:

• OpenAI has launched Operator, an AI agent tool capable of autonomously performing computer tasks like coding and travel booking.

• Leaked code suggests the tool will be integrated into the ChatGPT macOS app, with options to toggle and force quit the agent.

• Performance benchmarks indicate Operator is not yet fully reliable, succeeding only 60% in cloud provider tasks and 10% in Bitcoin wallet creation.

• OpenAI appears focused on safety testing, with leaked charts showing evaluations of the agent's ability to resist illicit activities and protect personal data.

Why It Matters:

OpenAI's Operator represents a pivotal moment in AI development, where autonomous agents might soon transform digital work. With impressive market potential and safety considerations, this tool could redefine how humans interact with technology, marking a significant leap towards truly intelligent computing assistants. It does however come with significant risks around illicit behaviour and super-powering scams.

ChatGPT Tasks: How to automate recurring tasks 🔄

Running a business requires juggling countless tasks and remembering important deadlines. ChatGPT's new Tasks feature might be the helping hand you need.

What is Tasks?

OpenAI has introduced Tasks, a new beta feature within ChatGPT that transforms the chatbot into a proactive digital assistant. This enhancement allows ChatGPT to send you reminders, schedule future actions, and automate routine communications - all without requiring complex coding or technical expertise.

Key Features and Benefits

Tasks operates as your personal scheduling assistant, offering several valuable capabilities:

• Scheduled prompts and notifications

• Customisable reminder frequencies

• Cross-platform notifications (web, desktop, and mobile)

• Task suggestions based on your conversations

• Simple management through chat threads or a dedicated interface

Practical Business Applications

Tasks opens up numerous possibilities for streamlining daily operations:

• Daily weather updates

• Meeting reminders and preparation prompts

• Regular industry news summaries

• Automated follow-up reminders for client communications

• Scheduled motivational messages for team meetings

The feature particularly shines in helping you maintain an organised schedule. By automating routine reminders and scheduled actions, Tasks frees up valuable time for strategic activities.

Current Limitations

While Tasks shows promise, it's important to understand its current constraints:

• No integration with external calendars or email services

• Some users report inconsistent notifications across devices

• The task management interface is still being refined

• Beta status means occasional reliability issues

Getting Started

To begin using Tasks:

1. Be on a paid plan with ChatGPT (for now…)

2. Select the menu on the top left and choose the model which says “with scheduled tasks”

3. Specify your desired action and timing

4. Approve any task suggestions

5. Monitor notifications across your preferred platforms

6. You can amend your tasks later by clicking on your profile icon on the top right, then choosing “tasks”

Looking Ahead

Despite its current limitations, Tasks represents a significant step forward in AI-assisted business management. As OpenAI continues to develop and refine this feature, we can expect to see improved integration capabilities and enhanced reliability.

For business owners seeking to streamline their daily operations, Tasks offers a promising solution that combines the intelligence of ChatGPT with practical scheduling functionality. While it shouldn't completely replace your existing scheduling systems yet, it provides a valuable complementary tool for managing routine reminders and communications.

Remember to approach Tasks as a helpful assistant rather than a critical system replacement during its beta phase. Used appropriately, it can significantly reduce the mental load of managing daily tasks and help keep your business running smoothly.

When you’re ready, here’s how I can help you:

• Jump into our free AI community

• Learn how to 10x your AI success with my proprietary WISER AI framework (coming soon… register interest here)

• Get my updated list of the best AI applications to use (free)

• Sponsor this newsletter: Get in front of an ever-growing audience of non-technical AI enthusiasts