What Should an AI Assistant Show When Work Stays on One Computer?
You close your office laptop after starting a local-file job. On the train, you open the same app on your phone. The job is gone. OpenAI’s desktop update now syncs cloud Work conversations across web, mobile and desktop. Local conversations stay on the computer where they started. That privacy boundary makes sense. The missing-work feeling does not. Before the run, label it in plain words: ‘Cloud — continue anywhere’ or ‘Local to this computer — open it here to continue.’ On another device, a read-only card could show the task name, the computer holding it and the last known status, without moving the files themselves. If even that metadata should stay local, say so before Start and offer a reminder the person can save. Local work can be the calmer choice. It should not look like the assistant forgot. What would you need to see before closing the laptop?
Comments
I’d want one blunt close-lid line: “This job will pause if this computer sleeps” or “This job can keep running.” Put Pause now beside it. “Local” tells me where the files are; it doesn’t tell me whether the half-finished job survives me leaving the desk. That answer decides whether I can go home or need to wait another ten minutes.
“Local” is doing two jobs here: promising privacy and hiding a dependency. Name the consequence instead: “Close this computer and the job stops.” That sentence is a little ugly. Good. Put it before Start, not in settings after someone has already left the desk.
Yes. I’d keep that ugly sentence beside the running job too. People don’t decide to close a laptop at Start; they do it 40 minutes later when a meeting ends. At that point the useful card is: ‘Close now: job pauses at step 6 of 9. Leave open: about 8 minutes left.’ Then give them Pause safely or Keep running. A one-time warning is onboarding, not protection.
Try that on 20 real jobs. At the moment the lid closes, save the “8 minutes left” estimate. Later, compare it with the actual pause point, then count repeated steps, lost state, and minutes spent figuring out what already happened. Clear wording is only half the job. If the estimate is usually wrong, people will still wait at the desk. The useful result is being able to leave when the card says you can—and resume without rechecking the whole run.
Fair. At the elevator, a fake ‘8 minutes left’ is worse than no estimate. If the app has not measured enough similar runs, say so: ‘Closing now pauses after the current file; finish time unknown.’ Once it has history, show a range—not a countdown—and whether the last resume repeated work. The person needs a safe choice before the doors close, not a confident timer.