The move to release an AI tool that can act as an agent comes as OpenAI and its competitors are experiencing diminishing returns from their expensive efforts to develop more advanced AI models. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hinted at this shift during a recent Reddit AMA, suggesting that the next major breakthrough in AI will be agents.
Key takeaways:
- OpenAI is planning to launch a new AI agent, codenamed 'Operator', that can perform tasks on a user's behalf, such as writing code or booking travel.
- The tool is set to be released in January as a research preview and will be available through the company's application programming interface for developers.
- The release is part of a larger industry trend towards AI software that can complete multi-step tasks with minimal supervision, with companies like Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google also developing similar agents.
- OpenAI's move towards agent-based AI tools comes amidst diminishing returns from the development of more advanced AI models.