On Thursday, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Agent, a new feature that lets the company’s AI assistant complete multi-step tasks by controlling its own web browser. The update merges capabilities from OpenAI’s earlier Operator tool and the Deep Research feature, allowing ChatGPT to navigate websites, run code, and create documents while users maintain control over the process.
The feature marks OpenAI’s latest entry into what the tech industry calls “agentic AI“—systems that can take autonomous multi-step actions on behalf of the user. OpenAI says users can ask Agent to handle requests like assembling and purchasing a clothing outfit for a particular occasion, creating PowerPoint slide decks, planning meals, or updating financial spreadsheets with new data.
The system uses a combination of web browsers, terminal access, and API connections to complete these tasks, including “ChatGPT Connectors” that integrate with apps like Gmail and GitHub.
While using Agent, users watch a window inside the ChatGPT interface that shows all of the AI’s actions taking place inside its own private sandbox. This sandbox features its own virtual operating system and web browser with access to the real Internet; it does not control your personal device. “ChatGPT carries out these tasks using its own virtual computer,” OpenAI writes, “fluidly shifting between reasoning and action to handle complex workflows from start to finish, all based on your instructions.”
Like Operator before it, the agent feature requires user permission before taking certain actions with real-world consequences, such as making purchases. Users can interrupt tasks at any point, take control of the browser, or stop operations entirely. The system also includes a “Watch Mode” for tasks like sending emails that require active user oversight.
Since Agent surpasses Operator in capability, OpenAI says the company’s earlier Operator preview site will remain functional for a few more weeks before being shut down.
Performance claims
OpenAI’s claims are one thing, but how well the company’s new AI agent will actually complete multi-step tasks will vary wildly depending on the situation. That’s because the AI model isn’t a complete form of problem-solving intelligence, but rather a complex master imitator. It has some flexibility in piecing a scenario together but also many blind spots. OpenAI trained the agent (and its constituent components) using examples of computer usage and tool usage; whatever falls outside of the examples absorbed from training data will likely still prove difficult to accomplish.
