ChatGPT: Everything You Need to Know About the Leading AI-Powered Chatbot

If you still think of ChatGPT as just a tool that writes funny poems or fixes your email grammar, you are missing the bigger picture.

Over the last few years, OpenAI’s flagship tool has evolved from a simple text interface into a comprehensive operating system for intelligence. From the reasoning capabilities of its newest reasoning models to its ability to "see" and "speak," the definition of what this AI-powered chatbot can do has fundamentally changed.

Whether you are a longtime subscriber or someone finally deciding to upgrade from the free tier, this guide synthesizes the latest developments reported by TechCrunch to tell you everything you need to know about the current state of ChatGPT.

The Engine Room: GPT-4o vs. o1

The most common point of confusion for new users is the model selector. ChatGPT isn't running on a single brain anymore; it has distinct modes of thinking that serve different purposes.

GPT-4o: The Sprinter

This is the default model for most users. It is designed to be fast, multimodal, and fluid.

Best For: Daily tasks, quick creative writing, and voice conversations.

Multimodal Capabilities: It sees, hears, and speaks with near-instant latency. If you use the Advanced Voice Mode to practice Spanish or troubleshoot a leaky faucet by showing your camera, you are utilizing GPT-4o.

Availability: It is available to Free users (with limits) and Plus subscribers.

o1: The Thinker

While GPT-4o is about speed, the o1 model is about depth. It represents a new class of AI that "thinks" before it speaks.

Best For: Complex coding, advanced mathematics, and strategic reasoning.

Chain-of-Thought: Unlike previous models that predict the next word immediately, o1 uses "chain-of-thought" processing. It pauses to plan its solution, often allowing it to self-correct errors that would stump the faster models.

The Trade-off: It is slower and more expensive (in terms of quota usage), but it drastically reduces hallucinations in complex logic puzzles.

The Toolkit: Beyond the Chat Box

The biggest shift reported in recent updates is that the interface has broken out of the linear text stream. The "AI-powered chatbot" is now a workspace.

1. Canvas

For writers and coders, the standard "chat" interface was always a bottleneck. Canvas fixes this by opening a dedicated window next to your chat.

How it works: Instead of re-generating an entire email or code block for one small edit, you highlight a section in Canvas and ask ChatGPT to "make this friendlier" or "debug this function."

Why it matters: It feels less like talking to a bot and more like working in a Google Doc with a genius editor.

2. ChatGPT Search

Gone are the days of the "knowledge cutoff." ChatGPT now integrates a real-time search engine.

The Utility: It browses the live web to find stock prices, breaking news, or local weather, complete with inline citations. It bridges the gap between a traditional search engine (like Google) and an answer engine, allowing you to ask follow-up questions about the data it finds.

3. Visual Intelligence (Sora and DALL-E 3)

The chatbot is no longer text-bound.

Image Generation: Powered by DALL-E 3, users can generate precise images within the chat.

Video Generation: As noted in the TechCrunch report, video generation via Sora has begun rolling out to high-tier users, allowing for the creation of short, high-definition video clips directly from text prompts.

The "Operator" Agent: The Next Frontier

If the last era of AI was about Chat, the current era is about Agency.

OpenAI is testing features that allow the AI-powered chatbot to browse the web for you. Known as "Operator" or "Deep Research" in various iterations, these agents don't just retrieve information; they can execute tasks.

The Concept: Instead of giving you a recipe, the agent could theoretically navigate to a grocery delivery site and add the ingredients to your cart.

The Reality: While powerful, these agentic features are often gated behind higher-tier subscriptions due to the immense computing power required to run them safely.

The Price of Intelligence: Which Tier is for You?

OpenAI has fragmented its pricing to match different user needs. Here is the current breakdown:

Free: Access to GPT-4o (limited) and basic Search. Good for casual users who just need answers.

Plus ($20/mo): The sweet spot for most enthusiasts. Unlocks the o1 model, Canvas, DALL-E 3, and Advanced Voice.

Pro ($200/mo): The power user tier. This provides significantly higher limits on the o1 model and priority compute. It is aimed specifically at developers and researchers who use the tool for heavy lifting.

Team/Enterprise: For businesses needing data privacy guarantees and admin controls.

Expert Perspective: The "Thinking" Shift

The Bottom Line

The most critical development isn't a specific feature like video or voice—it's the paradigm shift in how we interact with AI.

For the last two years, we were trained to be "Prompt Engineers," tweaking words to trick the AI into being smart. With the introduction of the o1 model, that era is ending. Because the model "reasons" and fact-checks itself before responding, the burden of accuracy is shifting from the user back to the AI.

However, this convenience comes with a trade-off. As the AI becomes more capable—remembering your preferences via "Memory" and executing tasks via "Operator"—it requires more access to your personal data. The "AI-powered chatbot" is becoming a digital extension of yourself, which makes the privacy conversation more urgent than ever.

Conclusion

ChatGPT has successfully transitioned from a novelty text generator to a multimodal workspace that can see, hear, code, and reason. It is the defining AI-powered chatbot of this generation.

If you haven't logged in recently, you are likely using a completely different tool than the one you remember. The question is no longer "What can I ask it?" but "What can I let it do for me?"

Ready to dive back in? Open a new chat, select the o1 model, and ask it a question you've been stuck on for weeks. The depth of the answer might just surprise you.