ChatGPT’s Projects Get a Power-Up: Six New Tools That Turn Folders Into AI Workbenches

June 13, 2025 HackAcademy

When Sam Altman wrote that the march toward superintelligence happens “bit by bit,” he may have been referring to upgrades like this. ChatGPT hasn’t launched a splashy new model this week, but its Projects workspace—essentially folders where related chats and files live together—just received a slate of enhancements that quietly turbo-charge productivity. Whether you’re a student corralling research, a developer juggling code snippets, or a marketer curating campaign assets, these six additions promise to make Projects feel less like storage and more like a full-fledged workbench.

1. Deep Research: Context That Stretches Across Your Files

Projects already kept conversations in one place; Deep Research now lets ChatGPT consider every chat and file inside that folder before responding. Ask for a synthesis of five white papers, a summary of yesterday’s brainstorm, or next steps for a product roadmap, and the bot pulls insights from the entire collection rather than a single thread.

Why it matters: No more copying and pasting context into a fresh prompt. The model automatically reads the room—and your PDFs—before it speaks.

2. Memory, But Project-Specific

ChatGPT’s global memory can recall your preferences, but it sometimes surfaces unrelated details. Inside Projects, memory is now scoped: when you’re in a Project about your dissertation, the bot references only those chats. Hop over to the “Vacation Planning” Project, and it forgets the thesis jargon and focuses on flight times instead.

Pro tip: Treat Projects like context silos. The tighter the theme, the smarter the recall.

3. Advanced Voice Mode Comes to Projects

Need to hash out ideas during a commute? Voice Mode—previously limited to general chats—now works inside Projects. Talk through your spreadsheet data, draft user stories while doing the dishes, or record voice memos straight into that startup-funding Project.

On the go: Your spoken input spawns a text chat, so every off-hand thought becomes searchable reference material later.

4. A Mobile Workflow That’s Actually Mobile

The iOS and Android apps finally catch up with desktop: you can upload files to a Project, switch between o3-pro and other models, and navigate folders without hunting through menus. For researchers capturing field notes or designers collecting inspiration shots, the camera-to-Project pipeline is now friction-free.

5. Share-a-Chat Links, Granular and Secure

Projects always let you hand off a full folder, but sometimes you only need to share one conversation. Now you can generate a unique URL for any single chat—perfect for sending a client the copy draft while keeping the budget spreadsheet private.

Security note: Shared links respect existing data-sharing settings. Turn off “Improve the model for everyone” if you need an iron wall around proprietary info.

6. Click, Drag, Done: Easier Project Management

Creating a Project no longer requires a trip to the sidebar. Tap the three-dot menu in any chat to spin up a new folder on the spot, or drag multiple chats en masse to keep your workspace tidy. It’s a small tweak that—paired with the new batch-delete workaround many users love—makes spring-cleaning your chat list painless.

Who Gets the Upgrades?

Plus, Pro, and Team subscribers: All six features, live now.
Enterprise and Edu tiers: Projects continue to function as before (for now) with privacy controls intact.
Data use: Team, Enterprise, and Edu data is never used to train the model by default. Free, Plus, and Pro users can opt out in settings.

You’re limited to 20 files per Project, but with Deep Research and scoped memory, those 20 files go further than ever.

Bit by Bit Toward Super-Productive

None of these features alone screams “singularity.” Yet together they reinforce Altman’s thesis: meaningful progress often arrives in quiet, cumulative drops. Grouping chats, talking to your work by voice, and letting the AI remember only what matters—these aren’t headline-grabbing leaps, but they do turn ChatGPT into a more context-savvy collaborator. For anyone already living inside Projects, the upgrade feels less like a folder refresh and more like a promotion: from digital filing cabinet to always-on research partner.

One bit at a time, superintelligence inches closer—and this week, it moved straight into your project folders.

Photo Credit: DepositPhotos.com