OpenAI unveils AI agent which can complete tasks on the web autonomously

24 January 2025, 13:34

OpenAI's new AI agent, Operator, which can complete tasks on the web autonomously for users
Home screen – Dining and events. Picture: PA

Operator can use a web browser to carry out tasks – such as booking services or online shops – autonomously once instructed by the user.

ChatGPT maker OpenAI has unveiled a new AI assistant which can carry out tasks on the internet independently once instructed by the user.

Called Operator, it is what is known as an AI agent – AI tools which can autonomously carry out a specific task given to them by the user.

Unveiled during a live demo video, OpenAI boss Sam Altman said Operator can use a web browser to help complete tasks that users give it, for example finding and booking a table at a restaurant or carrying out an online shop based on a photo of a shopping list users share with the tool.

We've got a lot of improvements to do - we'll make it better, we'll make it cheaper, we'll make it more widely available - but we really want to put it in people's hands

Sam Altman, OpenAI

“We think this is going to be a big trend in AI and really impact the work people can do, how productive they can be, what they can accomplish,” Mr Altman said during the announcement live stream.

He added that the tool was still an “early research preview”, but would be made available to users of OpenAI’s 200 dollars a month Pro subscription in the US first.

“We’ve got a lot of improvements to do – we’ll make it better, we’ll make it cheaper, we’ll make it more widely available – but we really want to put it in people’s hands,” Mr Altman said.

“We’ll also have more agents to launch in the coming weeks and months.”

Earlier this month, Mr Altman wrote on his personal blog that he believed 2025 would see the start of AI agents being rolled out by tech firms, and that these tools would “join the workforce and materially change the output of companies”.

In response to concerns in some quarters that AI could disrupt the job market and take roles away from humans, many tech executives and industry figures have instead argued that AI will be used to augment and support human work, taking on mundane and easily automated tasks to free up workers to do other things.

Speaking as it unveiled new AI-powered S25 smartphones this week, Samsung UK and Ireland’s director of mobile experience, Annika Bizon, said the increasing use of AI in mobile devices would help human productivity, not replace it.

“For us, it’s all about giving you the best opportunity to use whatever you want to use in your life in the best possible way,” she told the PA news agency.

It’s like trying to find something in an encyclopaedia versus using the internet

Annika Bizon, Samsung UK and Ireland

“And I think this is a really interesting point around what AI is going to do for the future because it’s going to be a level up.

“Someone said to me, do you think people are going to lose their jobs through AI? No, I think people are going to lose jobs against the person that’s using AI.

“It’s like trying to find something in an encyclopaedia versus using the internet.

“That’s the game change we’re talking about, and for me, that’s incredibly exciting.”

By Press Association

More Technology News

See more More Technology News

A Barclays sign outside a branch

Barclays to hand share award to staff after yearly profit surges by a quarter

A bin of seized knives. A new AI tool from the University of Surrey has been unveiled which could help police forces more quickly identify and trace knives.

New AI tool to identify knives could ‘transform’ policing of knife crime

Former executive chairman of Google Eric Schmidt

Former Google boss warns of ‘extreme risk’ from terrorists posed by AI

A laptop displaying a ‘Matrix’-style screensaver

MPs: Ministers must give protections to creative sector amid AI copyright fears

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the audience in a closing speech at the Grand Palais during the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris

Refusal to sign AI declaration was ‘based on what’s best for British people’

Someone at a computer keyboard

Airbnb issues warning over holiday scams fuelled by AI and social media

An HSBC branch

HSBC online and mobile banking working again after service outage

HSBC on growth across the UK

HSBC hit by outage as users complain of being unable to log on

The summit in Paris (Michel Euler/AP)

UK did not sign AI communique over ‘opportunity and security’ concerns – No 10

Sky Glass Gen 2

Sky unveils second generation Sky Glass TV promising ‘better picture and sound’

Technology Stock

UK announces sanctions against Russian cyber crime network

Participants in the AI Action Summit pose for a group photo at the Grand Palais in Paris

UK appears not to have signed leaders’ declaration at AI summit

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman

Sam Altman reiterates OpenAI ‘not for sale’ after Elon Musk-led bid

A young girl uses the TikTok app on a smartphone.

Data of dead British children may have been deleted, TikTok boss says

Elon Musk

Elon Musk offers $97bn to buy ChatGPT-maker OpenAI

Alesha Dixon (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Alesha Dixon working ‘super hard’ to stop children having phones