Topline
OpenAI announced the launch of an AI assistant known as “ChatGPT Agent” on Thursday, marking the tech giant’s biggest entrance into AI task management applications, which are gaining popularity as users look for more practical use out of their AI assistants.
ChatGPT Agents will be available to ChatGPT Pro users by the end of Thursday. (Photo by Didem … More
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Key Facts
ChatGPT Agent can complete work and various tasks for users such as creating slide decks, purchasing ingredients for a meal or submitting expenses, according to the announcement.
Users can also schedule the tasks to recur automatically, like updating existing spreadsheets with new data at the start of every week, according to OpenAI.
OpenAI said there are “new risks” with the new capabilities, noting that though it has added safeguards for handling sensitive information on the web and other factors, malicious prompts on webpages could trick ChatGPT Agent into sharing private data from a hacker or “taking a harmful action on a site the user has logged into.”
Users can interrupt ChatGPT Agent at any point during its tasks to clarify instructions or completely change the task if need be, allowing it to resume from where it left off without losing progress.
When Will Chatgpt Agent Become Available?
The AI assistant will become available to ChatGPT Pro users by the end of Thursday, while ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Team users will gain access “over the next few days,” OpenAI said. Users on the Enterprise and Education plans will gain access in the coming weeks.
What Privacy Measures Can Users Take Against Chatgpt Agent?
Users will be able to delete all their browsing data and log out of all active website sessions linked to their tasks with a single click, OpenAI said, noting cookies for websites will still persist based on each site’s cookie policy.
What To Watch For
OpenAI emphasized ChatGPT Agent is still in its early stages and said the assistant could make mistakes when generating slideshows and provide “rudimentary outputs.” OpenAI said it expects improvements in efficiency and depth as it tries to strike a better balance between its capabilities and user safety.
Tangent
OpenAI’s developments in task management AI have been flanked by a rush of funding. The company closed a whopping $40 billion funding round in March, marking the largest private tech funding round ever. OpenAI has also committed billions of dollars to the “Stargate Project,” a new company formed by itself, SoftBank, Oracle and MGX to invest $500 billion in American AI infrastructure.
Key Background
ChatGPT Agent is not OpenAI’s first foray into task management assistants. The company released “Operator” in January as a system capable of performing web tasks for users, including online grocery orders, ticket purchases, refund calculations and more. Operator is not fully autonomous and has been described by OpenAI as one of three pillars that helped create ChatGPT Agent, saying the new development is a combination of Operator’s ability to interact with websites, ChatGPT Deep Research’s ability to synthesize information and ChatGPT’s conversational skills. OpenAI’s task management applications released this year bring the company closer to producing artificial general intelligence, or AGI, which is a concept revolving around machines being able to self-teach and complete tasks in a way that is comparable to humans.
Further Reading
OpenAI’s ‘Operator’: What We Know About New AI Assistant Capable Of Ordering Groceries, Making Reservations (Forbes)