OpenAI launches ChatGPT Space for shared documents and files

OpenAI is rolling out ChatGPT Space, a shared workspace for documents, files, and AI-assisted content. The feature gives users a way to organize work beyond individual chats, while allowing colleagues to collaborate on the same material and use ChatGPT separately to revise it.

Space is available to ChatGPT Pro, Business, and Enterprise customers, although OpenAI says some capabilities are still rolling out and may not yet be available to every account.

According to Kris Holt’s report for Engadget, OpenAI introduced Space at its DevDay event as a collaboration hub where coworkers, ChatGPT, and the company’s new Dots agents can use shared information. OpenAI’s Help Center describes Space as the replacement for Library for accounts that receive access, while existing Projects remain separate.

Pages, spaces, and access rights

A Space acts as a container for related work. It can include folders, files, and editable pages. Users can create Spaces for a team or subject area, then organize information in pages and nested subpages. A project overview, for example, can contain separate subpages for meeting notes, status updates, or research.

Users can start a page from a conversation, write directly in Space, or begin with a template. They can also ask ChatGPT to create, revise, summarize, or restructure content. OpenAI says pages can include charts, trackers, and interactive tools generated by ChatGPT.

The company supports creating and editing pages on the web and in its desktop app. Mobile users can read, search, navigate, and share pages, but cannot edit them.

The company distinguishes Space from Projects. Projects continue to hold chats, project files, and instructions. Space instead focuses on documents and shared content that can be structured and collaborated on.

Access can be granted to an individual page or to an entire Space. Editors can work on a page at the same time. Permissions may also come from a parent page or the Space itself, and subpages inherit access from their parent. This makes permission checks important when moving content, since a moved page may receive a different set of readers.

OpenAI also warns that removing a direct invitation may not remove access that a person inherits through a parent page or Space. Deleting a parent page sends its subpages to Trash as well, including subpages owned by other people.

Files do not always travel with permissions

Space handles uploaded and linked files differently. A file uploaded directly to a page follows that page’s permissions. Anyone who can open the page can open the uploaded file.

Linked files retain the access rules of their original location. Sharing a page does not automatically let readers open a linked file in Space or in a connected service. However, if a user or ChatGPT copies information from a restricted source into a shared page, everyone with page access can read that copied information.

OpenAI advises users to check names, dates, calculations, sources, and access settings before sharing. The guidance also highlights privacy issues around Memory and AI training. If Memory is enabled, ChatGPT may use personal context while drafting a page, and that context becomes visible once it is written into the shared document.

Each collaborator’s own settings apply when they use ChatGPT with shared material. OpenAI says a collaborator whose training setting is enabled may cause shared content to be used for training through their interaction, even if another contributor has disabled training. ChatGPT Business and Enterprise data is not used for training by default.

For managed Business and Enterprise workspaces, organization-level sharing policies control which collaboration options members can use. OpenAI notes that Enterprise administrators may need to enable sharing before teams can collaborate.

Sources

• Getting started with Space in ChatGPT – OpenAI Help Center
• OpenAI announces ChatGPT Space, a collaborative workspace for users and ChatGPT and Dots, available on Pro, Business and Enterprise plans – Engadget