OpenAI to start testing ChatGPT connectors for Google Drive and Slack

OpenAI will soon begin testing a way for business customers to connect apps like Slack and Google Drive to ChatGPT.

OpenAI plans to start beta testing a new feature called ChatGPT Connectors, according to a document viewed by TechCrunch. ChatGPT Connectors will allow ChatGPT Team subscribers to link workspace Google Drive and Slack accounts to ChatGPT so the chatbot can answer questions informed by files, presentations, spreadsheets, and Slack conversations across those accounts.

OpenAI plans to expand ChatGPT Connectors to other platforms, like Microsoft SharePoint and Box, in the future, according to the document.

“This will allow employees using ChatGPT to easily make use of internal information similar to how they can use world knowledge via web search,” reads the document.

ChatGPT Connectors is OpenAI’s latest attempt to make ChatGPT an indispensable part of businesses’ software toolkits. While some companies have expressed reservations about allowing ChatGPT to access sensitive business info, others have embraced the tech with open arms.

ChatGPT Connectors could convince wary company executives to change their position — and present a formidable challenge to AI-powered enterprise search platforms like Glean.

ChatGPT Connectors, which is launching in beta for select ChatGPT Team users, is powered by a version of OpenAI’s GPT-4o model that can refine its responses based on “internal [company] knowledge,” according to the document. All users in a participating ChatGPT Team workspace gain access to the model via OpenAI’s ChatGPT apps.

The custom GPT-4o model searches and “reads” internal information possibly relevant to a query. To create a search index, OpenAI syncs an encrypted copy of company files and conversations on ChatGPT’s servers, per the document.

“Additional related information which [sic] the model did not directly make use of is accessible by clicking on the sources button at the bottom of each response,” the document reads. “When appropriate, the model will directly respond with a list of relevant results.”

Perhaps to assure customers that ChatGPT won’t leak their private data, the document highlights that Slack and Google Drive permissions are “fully respected” and “kept continuously up to date.” For example, ChatGPT Connector syncs Slack private channel memberships and Drive file permissions as well as directory information.

Employees won’t be able to discover content via ChatGPT that they can’t access in Google Drive or Slack, according to the OpenAI document, and admins will have the ability to choose which Slack channels and Google Drive files are synced. As a slight downside, employees might get “substantially different” responses to the same ChatGPT prompts, OpenAI said in the document.

There are technical limits to what ChatGPT Connector can access, as well.

Images in Google Drive files (e.g. Google Docs, Google Slides, PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, and plain text) aren’t supported, according to the document, which noted that ChatGPT Connector can only “read” — not analyze — data in Sheets and Excel workbooks. ChatGPT Connector can’t retrieve Slack DMs or group messages, and it’ll ignore messages from Slack bots.

Companies that wish to participate in the ChatGPT Connector beta are being asked to provide OpenAI with 100 documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and/or Slack channel conversations. The company said in the document it won’t directly train on the information, but may use them “as input to synthetic data generation” that might be used in its training.

“No data synced from Google Drive or Slack will be used for training,” the document reads.

OpenAI didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.