It was originally found in leaked code and publicized by AI influencers on X, but OpenAI has made it official: ChatGPT now offers Group Chats, allowing multiple users to join the same, single ChatGPT conversation and send messages to each other and the underlying large language model (LLM), online and via its mobile apps. Imagine adding ChatGPT as another member of your existing group chats, allowing you to text it as you would one of your friends or family members and have them respond as well, and you’ll have an idea of the intriguing power and potential of this feature.However, the feature is only available as a limited pilot for now to ChatGPT users in Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and Taiwan (all tiers, including free usage).“Group chats are just the beginning of ChatGPT becoming a shared space to collaborate and interact with others,” OpenAI wrote in its announcement.This development builds on internal experimentation at OpenAI, where technical staffer Keyan Zhang said in a post on X that OpenAI’s team initially considered multiplayer ChatGPT to be “a wild, out-of-distribution idea.”According to Zhang, the model’s performance in those early tests demonstrated far more potential than existing interfaces typically allow.The move follows OpenAI investor yet competitor Microsoft’s update of its Copilot AI assistant to allow group chats last month, as well as Anthropic’s introduction of shareable context and chat histories from its Claude AI models through its Projects feature introduced summer 2024, though this is not a simultaneous, realtime group chat in the same way. Collaborative functionality integrated into ChatGPTGroup chats function as shared conversational spaces where users can plan events, brainstorm ideas, or collaborate on projects with the added support of ChatGPT. These conversations are distinct from individual chats and are excluded from ChatGPT’s memory system—meaning no data from these group threads is used to train or personalize future interactions.Users can initiate a group chat by selecting the people …
