ChatGPT's Computer History Tracks Your Keystrokes
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- ChatGPT's macOS desktop app launched Computer History, an opt-in feature that captures clicks and keystrokes to convert user actions into training data and a referenceable activity timeline for future requests.
- OpenAI's Computer History relies on "events" rather than screenshots, distinguishing it from Microsoft's Windows Recall, which the source notes captured images, videos, and audio — and which OpenAI's version is explicitly compared to.
- Ari Weinstein, OpenAI's Product and Engineering manager, said on X that Computer History will automatically ignore content in incognito or private browser tabs.
- The feature is opt-in rather than opt-out, allows exclusion of specific apps and websites, and lets users delete entries for finer-grained control over what gets recorded.
- Dominik Kundel of OpenAI's Developer Experiences team demonstrated the feature in a video, showing it recalling a recently edited document, checking whether it was shared via Slack, and summarizing his morning activity.
- Codex can reference the Computer History timeline when users make requests, enabling the assistant to suggest automations and resume tasks users left half-finished.
- The source frames Computer History as "like Windows Recall, but without all the creepy screenshots" — while acknowledging it remains "still kind of creepy" given its keystroke-level monitoring.
Why it matters: Computer History marks OpenAI's entry into ambient activity tracking, staking out a screenshot-free alternative to Microsoft's Windows Recall. For users who opt in, click and keystroke patterns become training data — the opt-in design, automatic incognito exclusion, and manual deletion controls are the stated privacy safeguards, though the source acknowledges the monitoring itself remains unsettling.
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