OpenAI has launched a new feature for ChatGPT called Pulse, a tool designed to deliver personalised reports while users sleep. The service, revealed this week, aims to make ChatGPT more proactive by providing tailored daily updates rather than waiting for questions.
A Morning Briefing from AI
Pulse creates between five and ten short reports, or “cards”, that appear in the ChatGPT app each morning. These cover topics ranging from breaking news and sports updates to family travel itineraries and recipe suggestions.
Unlike social media feeds, which endlessly refresh, Pulse deliberately stops after generating a limited set of updates, displaying the message: Great, that’s it for today. OpenAI says the design is intended to avoid addictive scrolling while still offering useful, focused information.
Who Can Use It?
For now, Pulse is only available to subscribers of OpenAI’s Pro plan, which costs $200 (£165) a month. The company says it hopes to expand access to Plus users soon, but server capacity remains a limiting factor.
Pulse appears as a separate tab in the ChatGPT mobile app and can also integrate with Google services. By connecting Gmail and Google Calendar, the tool can surface important emails, draft agendas, and create reminders based on upcoming events. Users who enable ChatGPT’s memory feature will see even deeper personalisation, with updates shaped by past conversations and individual preferences.
How It Works
Each morning, users are greeted with a dashboard of cards combining text and AI-generated images. Clicking on a card reveals a fuller report, with source links included. Pulse also accepts direct requests, for example asking for a summary of local news, a marathon training plan, or stock market updates.
OpenAI’s product team demonstrated how Pulse created tailored reports such as Arsenal football updates, Halloween costume ideas for a family, and a toddler-friendly travel guide.
Implications for Media and Newsletters
The launch of Pulse could pose challenges for existing services such as Apple News, curated newsletters, and even traditional journalism outlets. By aggregating content from multiple sources and presenting it in a highly personalised way, Pulse may encourage users to rely on ChatGPT for their daily briefing.
However, OpenAI insists it is not trying to replace news organisations. Pulse provides clickable links to original sources, echoing the way ChatGPT Search cites material. Still, the move underlines how AI tools are increasingly competing for the same morning attention once dominated by newspapers, news apps, and inbox newsletters.
The Bigger Picture
Pulse is part of OpenAI’s broader strategy to make ChatGPT feel less like a chatbot and more like a personal assistant. Company executives describe it as a first step towards agentic AI, systems capable of acting on a user’s behalf, such as booking restaurants or drafting emails.
For now, the service remains compute-intensive and limited to top-tier subscribers, but OpenAI says it wants to democratise access as infrastructure expands.
Whether Pulse becomes a daily habit for users, and whether it disrupts competitors in news and publishing, will be closely watched in the months ahead.
