Why use Hazel if you already use ChatGPT?
Why I’m building a dedicated AI for conversations about your life, discovery, and follow-up.
ChatGPT and Claude are part of how I get work done. Much of what they know about me is tied to projects, admin, and whatever issue I happened to be working through that afternoon.
That context is helpful. But once I start talking about something personal, work and life can start to feel a little tangled together. I sometimes want a separate space for thinking about how my life is going.
That’s part of the reason I’m building Hazel.
Different AIs for different parts of life
My guess is we’ll eventually talk to several AIs for different reasons. We already go to different people depending on what we need. The friend you call about a problem at work might not be the same person you talk to when you’re thinking about moving somewhere new.
Muse has helped me look for sublets through Facebook groups I’m in, and Grok has helped me track down bookmarks on X. In each case, the tool had access to something useful for that specific job.
Hazel’s focus is different: she gets to know you through conversations about your life and helps you figure out what to do next.
ChatGPT is capable of thoughtful personal conversations as well. It also has memory. Hazel has to earn its place through the experience it brings together.
Found for you: a few things that fit your life
Between conversations, Hazel keeps working on your behalf. Every 24 hours, she looks for a small, targeted set of events, meetups, and communities that match what she’s learning about you.
Say you’ve moved somewhere new. You’ve said you miss your old friendships and want to make music again. A small jam session could be worth suggesting because it connects two things you’ve been talking about: playing again and finding people whose company you enjoy.
That’s the thinking behind Found for you. The suggestions are based on your interests and circumstances, including the direction you want your life to take. You don’t have to remember to request recommendations each time.
What sounds interesting is still your call. And as you share more, including what you’ve tried and how it felt, Hazel has more material to work with for future suggestions.
A conversation that can start with a text from Hazel
You can reach Hazel by SMS, so you can text her when something happens or a thought comes up.
She can also contact you first. If she comes across something she thinks you’d appreciate, she can text you. After an event, she may check in to hear how it went, much like a friend would.
Maybe you loved playing but were uncomfortable with the group. Maybe you met someone you’d like to see again. Replying right there makes it easier to share those details while they’re fresh.
That experience can shape what Hazel suggests next and what the two of you talk about together.
The purpose is to help you live
Beneath all of this is a fairly simple philosophy: Hazel should help you take part more fully in your own life.
At times, that means working through a difficult decision. At other times, it means trying something you’ve been putting off, or finding people who share an interest.
Hazel will always have only a partial understanding. You can correct her, and you can change your mind. What you wanted six months ago might no longer matter.
When would you use each?
If what you want is a broad assistant for work and lots of different tasks, ChatGPT makes sense. It’s where I already have useful professional context.
Hazel is more focused. Its value depends on whether you would find a dedicated space for your life useful, with discovery and follow-up built around what matters to you.
You can use both.
Bring your existing context with you
You can also carry context from ChatGPT or another AI chatbot into Hazel:
- Use Hazel’s handoff prompt inside the other AI.
- Look over what it produces and decide what you want to share.
- Then paste that context into Hazel, or load a text file.
What comes over is your call. This handoff shares selected context; it doesn’t automatically connect your entire chat history.
You can leave your work conversations where they are and give Hazel a starting point for the part of your life you want to explore.