OpenAI Releases “Operator” AI Agent

OpenAI has rolled out Operator, an AI agent able to executing tasks autonomously inside an internet browser. Initially available to U.S. users on ChatGPT’s $200 Pro plan, it should expand across other tiers. Operator automates tasks like booking travel, making reservations, and online shopping, using a dedicated browser interface that mimics human navigation.

Powered by the Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model, it interacts with web sites identical to a human would, filling out forms and clicking buttons. While effective for routine tasks, it requires user supervision for sensitive actions akin to banking or email. Collaborating with corporations like eBay and Uber, OpenAI ensures compliance with service agreements.

In a notable shift in its data retention policies, OpenAI revealed that it might retain deleted data from Operator for as much as 90 days—longer than the 30-day retention period for ChatGPT. This policy goals to stop abuse and improve fraud monitoring. While data could also be accessed by authorized personnel for legal or security purposes, users retain control over their information.

OpenAI has initiated the training phase for its succeeding reasoning model, tentatively designated “o4,” as disclosed by Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil during his address on the World Economic Forum in Davos. This development follows the expeditious advancement of its predecessor, the o3 model, which was realized inside a mere three-month timeframe.

Weil expressed confidence in a considerable augmentation of capabilities with the forthcoming o4 model, while concurrently projecting much more abbreviated iteration cycles for subsequent models. Read more.

ByteDance’s UI-TARS stands as a cutting-edge AI agent for PC and macOS, outstripping GPT-4o, Claude, and Gemini in GUI-centric tasks. Available in 7B and 72B parameter variants, it achieves state-of-the-art performance across 10+ benchmarks, showcasing its prowess in perception, contextual grounding, and sequential reasoning. Trained on 50 billion tokens, augmented by a screenshot-rich dataset, UI-TARS interprets multimodal inputs with finesse, autonomously completes complex workflows, and iteratively refines its outputs through error evaluation.

Equipped with sophisticated memory systems, UI-TARS seamlessly balances rapid, intuitive responses with deliberate, multi-step planning. In evaluations akin to VisualWebBench, ScreenQA-short, and WebSRC, it demonstrates unparalleled proficiency, reflecting an astute grasp of web and mobile GUIs. By offering transparent, stepwise task execution, it sets a brand new standard for adaptive AI agents within the competitive landscape of multimodal intelligence. Read more.