OpenAI Introduces LifeVal, a Benchmark Shaped by Thousands of ChatGPT Users on the Everyday Tasks They Most Want Help With
For AGI to benefit all of humanity, it should help people with the everyday tasks that matter most to them. So we built LifeVal, a new benchmark shaped by feedback from thousands of ChatGPT users on where they most want help from a personal assistant—from finding childcare to accessing government services to managing personal finances. Over the past year, we’ve used LifeVal to measure and improve how well our models handle these everyday tasks.
Context
A benchmark built around childcare, government services and personal finances pushes labs to measure usefulness in daily life, not just exam style scores.
Most AI benchmarks test coding, math or expert knowledge, which do not always reflect what ordinary users ask assistants to do. OpenAI has recently published other usefulness benchmarks, such as GDPval for economically valuable work. LifeVal was announced with a one minute video and a link to more details.
Deep dive
OpenAI (@OpenAI) posted on Nov 2 that it built LifeVal, a new benchmark shaped by feedback from thousands of ChatGPT users on where they most want help from a personal assistant. The post gives examples ranging from finding childcare to accessing government services to managing personal finances.
OpenAI frames the benchmark around its mission, saying that for AGI to benefit all of humanity, it should help people with the everyday tasks that matter most to them. It also says that over the past year it has used LifeVal to measure and improve how well its models handle these everyday tasks. That means LifeVal is not only a public scorecard but an internal target that has already shaped training.
The post itself does not list model scores, the number of tasks or how answers are graded. The video's title card shows a bar chart with values of 84, 97 and 98, but it is not labeled, so it should not be read as official results. Details are in the linked page rather than the post.
The benchmark fits a wider shift toward measuring practical usefulness. Benchmarks on hard math and coding have saturated quickly, while many ChatGPT users mostly want help with forms, schedules, money and family logistics. Because OpenAI designed LifeVal and has already optimized against it, outside researchers will want to see whether it is released openly and how other labs' models score.
What to expect next
Watch for whether OpenAI publishes the tasks and grading so other labs can run LifeVal, and for scores from Anthropic, Google and open models. If it becomes a common reference, assistants may be tuned more toward real world errands and paperwork. Critics will look for whether the tasks favor ChatGPT's own features, since the benchmark was built from its users.