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OpenAI unveils ChatGPT agent to shop online, create slides for users
ChatGPT agent, set to be unveiled during a livestreamed event on Thursday, is designed to streamline personal and professional projects, such as planning a meal and ordering ingredients for it online, or creating a slideshow for a business meeting. The tool works through OpenAI's flagship chatbot and combines the capabilities of two AI services it rolled out earlier this year: Operator, which can browse, type and click on the internet much in the way a human would; and Deep Research, which is meant to handle time-consuming online research.
The San Francisco-based company said the agent features will be available immediately to its paid Pro, Plus and Team subscribers, with plans to release it later this summer to other enterprise and education customers. Some of the details of the software were previously reported by the Information.
A growing number of tech companies, including OpenAI backer Microsoft Corp. and rival Anthropic, are focusing on agents, or AI software that can complete multistep tasks for users with minimal supervision. OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman previously said agents will be 'the next giant breakthrough' for AI. The hope is that such tools can save users time and thereby live up to the long-held promise that AI will make people more productive. For now, however, the software can still be frustrating and slow.
In a demonstration of the ChatGPT agent this week, Neel Ajjarapu, OpenAI's product manager for the software, gave the chatbot a detailed prompt: Browse Etsy for vintage-style lamps that are under a couple hundred dollars and available with free shipping, then put the best-looking items in his online shopping cart and provide a URL for each one.
OpenAI has also experimented with using the tool to make presentations and PowerPoints, Ajjarapu said, though he cautioned it's more for making 'very early rough drafts' of presentations people can then refine. Microsoft, the company that makes PowerPoint, also offers AI tools to help professionals draft presentations.
Ajjarapu said the AI model that powers the tool uses a computer and web browser to complete assignments. It can also take in feedback from the user while a task is underway and alter its approach, he said. While users are accustomed to chatting in nearly real time with ChatGPT, it can take much longer — several minutes at least — for the chatbot to complete agent-like tasks.
AI agents present new safety and security risks, given the potential for AI to make mistakes or be misused by bad actors. The company said ChatGPT agent is meant to turn down some tasks, including those related to finances or legal advice. There are also a number of actions the tool will seek permission for before carrying out, including making purchases, the company said. For some tasks, such as writing emails, the service will require a user to supervise it.
As with the launches of Operator and Deep Research, the company acknowledged its latest agent effort still needs work.
'It is far from perfect,' said OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil during the demonstration. 'But I think if we had gone back six months ago or 12 months ago and said this was going to be possible today, we would have been pretty excited about it.'
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