After Google, OpenAI plans to launch its new tool that automates tasks in January

OpenAI's new AI tool, codenamed Operator, will be able to use computers to take actions on users behalf. This comes a week after Google's similar tool Jarvis was leaked.

In Short

• OpenAI to launch new tool, codenamed Operator in January
• It is designed to automate tasks for the user
• Google's Jarvis is a similar model, might launch in December

OpenAI is reportedly working on a new AI-powered tool that will automate lengthy tasks like booking flight tickets, research on topics and writing code. According to the report in Bloomberg, the company will launch its first research preview of this tool in January 2025. Codenamed Operator, will be released through the company’s application programming interface for developers.

The upcoming release is part of a wider trend in the tech industry towards AI agents, which are designed to handle complex, multi-step tasks with little human oversight. Anthropic has introduced a similar agent that can monitor activities on a user’s computer in real time and perform tasks autonomously. Meanwhile, Microsoft, a major backer of OpenAI, has rolled out a suite of agent tools aimed at automating email communication and record-keeping for employees. Additionally, Alphabet’s Google is reportedly gearing up to launch its own AI agent, as reported by The Information.

A week ago, Google’s Jarvis was leaked via the Chrome web store. It has similar capabilities as the upcoming OpenAI Operator tool. Although, Google might launch Jarvis in December this year. The leaked store page described Jarvis prototype as, "a helpful companion that surfs the web for you." This means that the upcoming Google AI will do several tasks on its own for the user. For instance, Jarvis will be able to pull off common tasks like booking tickets, buying groceries and researching topics easily.

It also means that Google's latest AI can independently operate a computer, handling straightforward tasks without human intervention.

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, suggested in a Reddit Ask Me Anything session last month that the next major breakthrough in AI would be the development of agents. He noted that while models will continue to improve, the real shift will come with the rise of agent-based systems. This move toward agentic AI comes as OpenAI and other companies face diminishing returns from their expensive efforts to create increasingly advanced models.

In the related news, last month, it was reported that OpenAI will unveil its next flagship model before the end of this year. The Orion model is expected to be a significant advancement in artificial intelligence, potentially succeeding GPT-4. It builds upon the progress made by previous models, with a focus on enhancing reasoning, problem-solving, and language processing. It aims to reduce common AI issues like hallucinations by leveraging improved synthetic data generation, as described earlier. It was also reported that OpenAI was using o1, code named Strawberry, to provide synthetic data to train Orion.

Looks like OpenAI has a lot planned for the upcoming months. But if the speculations of Google's Jarvis to come before OpenAI's Operator is true, then it indicates that Google still has a firm grip. Even after ChatGPT search launch, Google is a step ahead.