Tag: OpenAI

OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’

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OpenAI is announcing a new AI “agent” designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform.

Appropriately enough, it’s called deep research.

OpenAI said in a blog post published Sunday that these this new capability was designed for “people who do intensive knowledge work in areas like finance, science, policy, and engineering and need thorough, precise, and reliable research.” It could also be useful, the company added, for anyone making “purchases that typically require careful research, like cars, appliances, and furniture.”

Basically, ChatGPT deep research is intended for instances where you don’t just want a quick answer or summary, but instead need to assiduously consider information from multiple websites and other sources.

OpenAI said it’s making deep research available to ChatGPT Pro users today, limited to 100 queries per month, with support for Plus and Team users coming next, followed by Enterprise. (OpenAI is targeting a Plus rollout in about a month from now, the company said.) It’s a geo-targeted launch; OpenAI had no release timeline to share for ChatGPT customers in the U.K., Switzerland, and the European Economic Area.

deep research composer
Image Credits:OpenAI /

To use ChatGPT deep research, you’ll just select “deep research” in the composer and then enter a query, with the option to attach files or spreadsheets. (It’s a web-only experience for now, with mobile and desktop app integration to come later this month.) Deep research could then take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes to answer the question, and you’ll get a notification when the search completes.

Currently, ChatGPT deep research’s outputs are text-only. But OpenAI said that it intends to add embedded images, data visualizations, and other “analytic” outputs soon. Also on the roadmap is the ability to connect “more specialized data sources,” including “subscription-based” and internal resources, OpenAI added.

The big question is, just how precise is ChatGPT deep research? AI is imperfect, after all. It’s prone to hallucinations and other types of errors that could be particularly harmful in a “deep research” scenario. That’s perhaps why OpenAI said every ChatGPT deep research output will be “fully documented, with clear citations and a summary of [the] thinking, making it easy to reference and verify the information.”

The jury’s out on whether those mitigations will be sufficient to combat AI mistakes. OpenAI’s AI-powered web search feature in ChatGPT, ChatGPT Search, not infrequently makes gaffes and gives wrong answers to questions. TechCrunch’s testing found that ChatGPT Search produced less useful results than Google Search for certain queries.

To beef up deep research’s accuracy, OpenAI is using a special version of its recently announced o3 “reasoning” AI model that was trained through reinforcement learning on “real-world tasks requiring browser and Python tool use.” Reinforcement learning essentially “teaches” a model via trial and error to achieve a specific goal. As the model gets closer to the goal, it receives virtual “rewards” that, ideally, make it better at the task going forward.

It said this version of the OpenAI o3 model is “optimized for web browsing and data analysis,” adding that “it leverages reasoning to search, interpret, and analyze massive amounts of text, images, and PDFs on the internet, pivoting as needed in reaction to information it encounters […] The model is also able to browse over user uploaded files, plot and iterate on graphs using the python tool, embed both generated graphs and images from websites in its responses, and cite specific sentences or passages from its sources.”

deep research sidebar
Image Credits:OpenAI /

The company said that it tested ChatGPT deep research using Humanity’s Last Exam, an evaluation that includes more than 3,000 expert-level questions in a variety of academic fields. The o3 model powering deep research achieved an accuracy of 26.6%, which might look like a failing grade — but Humanity’s Last Exam was designed to be tougher than other benchmarks to stay ahead of model advancements. According to OpenAI, the deep research o3 model came in way ahead of Gemini Thinking (6.2%), Grok-2 (3.8%), and OpenAI’s own GPT-4o (3.3%).

Still, OpenAI notes that ChatGPT deep research has limitations, sometimes making mistakes and incorrect inferences. Deep research may struggle to distinguish authoritative information from rumors, the company said, and often fails to convey when it’s uncertain about something — and it can also make formatting errors in reports and citations.

For anyone worried about the impact of generative AI on students, or on anyone trying to find information online, this type of in-depth, well-cited output probably sounds more appealing than a deceptively simple chatbot summary with no citations. But we’ll see whether most users will actually subject the output to real analysis and double-checking, or if they simply treat it as a more professional-looking text to copy-paste.

And if this all sounds familiar, Google actually announced a similar AI feature with the exact same name less than two months ago.

OpenAI launches Operator: an AI assistant that handles web tasks

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OpenAI on website on smartphone stock photo (2)

Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority

TL;DR

  • OpenAI has launched Operator, an AI agent that performs browser-based tasks like filling out forms, booking services, and placing orders.
  • Operator is currently only available as a research preview for Pro users in the US.
  • OpenAI plans to expand access, refine Operator through user feedback, and eventually integrate it into ChatGPT.

AI agents have recently become the talk of the tech world, so it was only a matter of time before we saw the biggest name in AI get in on the action. OpenAI just introduced Operator, an AI agent capable of performing tasks directly within a browser. Your automated PA has arrived.

According to the press release on OpenAI’s website, Operator is currently only available as a research preview for Pro users in the US. It uses a new model called the Computer-Using Agent (CUA) to handle tasks like filling out forms, booking services, and placing orders online.

Operator combines GPT-4o’s vision capabilities with advanced reasoning and tools for navigating websites. It interacts with pages by clicking, typing, and scrolling — just like you or I would. Tasks can be assigned with simple instructions, and Operator returns control to you when sensitive input like passwords or payment details is required.

You can also customize workflows for specific sites or save prompts for frequent tasks, such as restocking groceries or managing multiple orders simultaneously. You can see a practical demonstration in the preview video below.

This initial release as a research preview is being used to gather feedback and refine the tool. OpenAI plans to expand access to other user tiers and eventually integrate Operator into ChatGPT. Collaborations with companies like Instacart and public-sector initiatives are also being tested to explore practical use cases.

Our natural instinct is to wonder how this might immediately go wrong, so OpenAI is quick to point out that Operator is designed with safeguards to protect user data and ensure safe interactions. It pauses for confirmation before completing major actions and avoids handling sensitive tasks like financial transactions. Users can manage privacy settings, delete browsing data, and opt out of data collection. OpenAI accepts it’s still a work in progress and may struggle with more complex interfaces, hence this research phase.

OpenAI Pro users in the US can give Operator a try now at operator.chatgpt.com. Just describe a task, and Operator will handle the rest, with you retaining the option to take over if needed.

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ChatGPT Search can be tricked into misleading users, new research reveals

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ChatGPT Search, an AI-powered search engine that went live this month, can be fooled into generating completely misleading summaries, U.K. newspaper The Guardian has found.

ChatGPT’s search feature is meant to make browsing faster by doing things like summarizing a web page’s product reviews. But The Guardian found it could get ChatGPT to ignore negative reviews and generate “entirely positive” summaries by inserting hidden text into websites it created. ChatGPT Search could also be made to spit out malicious code using this method.

Such hidden text attacks are a well-known risk for large language models, but this appears to be the first time it’s demonstrated on a live AI-powered search product. Google, the leader in search, has more experience dealing with similar problems, The Guardian noted.

OpenAI didn’t comment about this specific incident when TechCrunch reached out, but said it uses a variety of methods to block malicious websites and is continually improving.

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ChatGPT now understands real-time video, seven months after OpenAI first demoed it

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OpenAI has finally released the real-time video capabilities for ChatGPT that it demoed nearly seven months ago.

On Thursday during a livestream, the company said that Advanced Voice Mode, its human-like conversational feature for ChatGPT, is getting vision. Using the ChatGPT app, users subscribed to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro can point their phones at objects and have ChatGPT respond in near-real-time.

Advanced Voice Mode with vision can also understand what’s on a device’s screen, via screen sharing. It can explain various settings menus, for example, or give suggestions on a math problem.

To access Advanced Voice Mode with vision, tap the voice icon next to the ChatGPT chat bar, then tap the video icon at the bottom left, which will start video. To screen-share, tap the three-dot menu and select “Share Screen.”

The rollout of Advanced Voice Mode with vision will start today, OpenAI says, and wrap up in the next week. But not all users will get access. OpenAI says that ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu subscribers won’t get the feature until January, and that it has no timeline for ChatGPT users in the EU, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein.

In a recent demo on CNN’s 60 Minutes, OpenAI president Greg Brockman had Advanced Voice Mode with vision quiz Anderson Cooper on his anatomy skills. As Cooper drew body parts on a blackboard, ChatGPT could “understand” what he was drawing.

OpenAI unveils ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode in May 2024.
Image Credits:OpenAI

“The location is spot on,” the assistant said. “The brain is right there in the head. As for the shape, it’s a good start. The brain is more of an oval.”

In that same demo, Advanced Voice Mode with vision made a mistake on a geometry problem, however — suggesting that it’s prone to hallucinating.

Advanced Voice Mode with vision has been delayed multiple times — reportedly in part because OpenAI announced the feature far before it was production-ready. In April, OpenAI promised that Advanced Voice Mode would roll out to users “within a few weeks.” Months later, the company said it needed more time.

When Advanced Voice Mode finally arrived in early fall for some ChatGPT users, it lacked the visual analysis component. In the lead-up to today’s launch, OpenAI has focused its attention on bringing the voice-only Advanced Voice Mode experience to additional platforms and users in the EU.

In addition to Advance Voice Mode with vision, OpenAI today launched a festive “Santa Mode,” which adds Santa’s voice as a preset voice in ChatGPT. Users can find it by tapping or clicking the snowflake icon in the ChatGPT app next to the prompt bar.

Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendant

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Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI accusing the company of abandoning its non-profit mission was withdrawn in July, only to be revived in August. Now, in an amended complaint, the suit names new defendants including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton.

The amended filing also adds new plaintiffs: Neuralink exec and ex-OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and Musk’s AI company, xAI.

Musk was one of the original founders of OpenAI, which was meant to research and develop AI for the benefit of humanity, and was established as a non-profit originally. He left the company in 2018 after disagreements about its direction.

In the complaint, lawyers for Musk argue that OpenAI is now “actively trying to eliminate competitors” such as xAI by “extracting promises from investors not to fund them.” It’s also allegedly unfairly benefitting from Microsoft’s infrastructure and expertise in what Musk’s counsel describes in the filing as a “de facto merger.”

“xAI has been harmed by, without limitation … an inability to obtain compute from Microsoft on terms anywhere near as favorable as OpenAI receives … and the exclusive exchange between OpenAI and Microsoft of competitively sensitive information,” reads the complaint, filed late Thursday in federal court in Oakland, California.

Hoffman’s position on the boards of both Microsoft and OpenAI while also a partner at Greylock, the investment firm, gave Hoffman a privileged — and illicit — view into the companies’ dealings, the complaint alleges. (Hoffman stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023.) Greylock invested in Inflection, Musk’s counsel notes, the AI startup that Microsoft acqui-hired earlier this year — and which could reasonably be considered an OpenAI competitor, according to the complaint.

As for Templeton, whom Microsoft briefly appointed as a non-voting board observer at OpenAI, the amended filing alleges that she was in a position to facilitate agreements between Microsoft and OpenAI that would violate antitrust rules.

“The purpose of the prohibition on interlocking directorates is to prevent sharing of competitively sensitive information in violation of antitrust laws and/or providing a forum for the coordination of other anticompetitive activity,” the complaint reads. “Allowing Templeton and Hoffman to serve as members of OpenAI’s …. board undermined this purpose. “

Alongside Microsoft, Hoffman, and Templeton, California attorney general Rob Bonta is named as a defendant in Musk’s complaint. Bloomberg reported this month that OpenAI is in talks with Bonta’s office over the process to change its corporate structure.

Per the amended complaint, Zilis, who stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023 after serving as a member for roughly four years, has standing as an “injured employee” under California Corporations Code. Zilis repeatedly raised concerns over OpenAI’s dealmaking internally that fell on deaf ears — concerns substantially similar to Musk’s, according to the complaint.

Zilis has close ties to Musk, having worked as a project director at Tesla from 2017 to 2019 in addition to directing Neuralink research. (Neuralink is Musk’s brain-computer interface venture.) She’s also the mother of three of Musk’s children, Techno Mechanicus and twins Strider and Azure.

The 107-page amended complaint includes the unusual detail that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed that OpenAI sell its own cryptocurrency in January 2018, before it ultimately decided to transition to a capped-profit structure.

“Heads up, spoke to some of the safety team and there were a lot of concerns about the ICO and possible unintended effects in the future,” Altman wrote in an email to Musk dated January 21, 2018, an exhibit filed with the amended complaint shows. An ICO, or initial coin offering, is an unregulated means by which funds are raised for cryptocurrency businesses. “Going to emphasize the need to keep this confidential, but I think it’s really important we get buy-in and give people the chance to weigh in early.”

Musk v OpenAI crypto ICO Altman email
Image Credits:Toberoff & Associates

Musk supposedly shot down the crypto sale idea. “I have considered the ICO approach and will not support it,” he wrote in an email reply to Altman and OpenAI co-founders Greg Brockman (now OpenAI’s president) and Ilya Sutskever (OpenAI’s ex-chief scientist), shows an exhibit. “In my opinion, that would simply result in a massive loss of credibility for OpenAI and everyone associated with the ICO.”

The thrust of the lawsuit remains the same on the plaintiffs’ side: that OpenAI profited from Musk’s early involvement in the company yet reneged on its nonprofit pledge to make the fruits of its AI research available to all. “No amount of clever drafting nor surfeit of creative dealmaking can obscure what is happening here,” reads the complaint. “OpenAI, Inc., co-founded by Musk as an independent charity committed to safety and transparency … [is] fast becoming a full for-profit subsidiary of Microsoft.”

OpenAI has sought to dismiss Musk’s lawsuit, calling it “blusterous” and baseless.

Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendent

Posted on by faz_business


Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI accusing the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission was withdrawn in July, only to be revived in August. Now, in an amended complaint, the suit names new defendants including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton.

The amended filing also adds new plaintiffs: Neuralink exec and ex-OpenAI board member Shivon Zilis and Musk’s AI company, xAI.

Musk was one of the original founders of OpenAI, which was meant to research and develop AI for the benefit of humanity, and was established as a non-profit originally. He left the company in 2018 after disagreements about its direction.

In the complaint, lawyers for Musk argue that OpenAI is now “actively trying to eliminate competitors” such as xAI by “extracting promises from investors not to fund them.” It’s also allegedly unfairly benefitting from Microsoft’s infrastructure and expertise in what Musk’s counsel describes in the filing as a “de facto” merger.

“xAI has been harmed by, without limitation … an inability to license OpenAI technology given Microsoft’s exclusive license … an inability to obtain compute from Microsoft on terms anywhere near as favorable as OpenAI receives … and the exclusive exchange between OpenAI and Microsoft of competitively sensitive information.”

Hoffman’s position on the boards of both Microsoft and OpenAI while also a partner at Greylock, the investment firm, gave Hoffman a privileged — and illicit — view into the companies’ dealings, the complaint alleges. (Hoffman stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023.) Greylock invested in Inflection, Musk’s counsel notes, the AI startup that Microsoft acqui-hired earlier this year — and which could reasonably be considered an OpenAI competitor, according to the complaint.

As for Templeton, whom Microsoft briefly appointed as a non-voting board observer at OpenAI, the amended filing alleges that she was in a position to facilitate agreements between Microsoft and OpenAI that would violate antitrust rules.

“The purpose of the prohibition on interlocking directorates is to prevent sharing of competitively sensitive information in violation of antitrust laws and/or providing a forum for the coordination of other anticompetitive activity,” the complaint reads. “Allowing Templeton and Hoffman to serve as members of OpenAI’s …. board undermined this purpose. “

Per the amended complaint, Zilis, who stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023 after serving as a member for roughly four years, has standing as an “injured employee” under California Corporations Code. Zilis repeatedly raised concerns over OpenAI’s dealmaking internally that fell on deaf ears — concerns substantially similar to Musk’s, according to the complaint.

Zilis has close ties to Musk, having worked as a project director at Tesla from 2017 to 2019 in addition to directing Neuralink research. (Neuralink is Musk’s brain-computer interface venture.) She’s also the mother of three of Musk’s children, Techno Mechanicus and twins Strider and Azure.

The 107-page amended complaint includes the unusual detail that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman proposed that OpenAI sell its own cryptocurrency in September 2017, before it ultimately decided to transition to a capped-profit structure. Musk supposedly shot down the crypto sale idea.

The thrust of the lawsuit remains the same on the plaintiffs’ side: that OpenAI profited from Musk’s early involvement in the company yet reneged on its nonprofit pledge to make the fruits of its AI research available to all. “No amount of clever drafting nor surfeit of creative dealmaking can obscure what is happening here,” reads the complaint. “OpenAI, Inc., co-founded by Musk as an independent charity committed to safety and transparency … [is] fast becoming a full for-profit subsidiary of Microsoft.”

Built in four days, this $120 robot arm cleans a spill with help from GPT-4o

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Large language models have already proven transformative for robotics. While researchers and companies alike utilize the platforms to supercharge robotic learning, a pair of roboticists at UC Berkeley and ETH Zurich challenged themselves by leveraging generative AI to put a cheap robot arm to work.

Jannik Grothusen and Kaspar Janssen trained a pair of $120 robot arms to clean a spill. Using GPT-4o, the robots were programmed in four days, designing a visual language model for human-robot-interaction (HRI). The motions were trained using roughly 100 demos.

If you’d like a robot to help clean up at home, The Robot Studio has released plans on YouTube for building the arms on a budget.



Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is reportedly fundraising for a new AI startup

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Mira Murati, the OpenAI CTO who announced her departure last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup, according to Reuters.

This startup will reportedly focus on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round.

When she left, Murati wrote on X that OpenAI had “fundamentally changed how AI systems learn and reason through complex problems” in its recent releases. She said, “I’m stepping away because I want to create the time and space to do my own exploration,” but didn’t offer details about her plans.

Before joining OpenAI as VP of applied AI and partnerships in 2018, Murati worked at Tesla and Leap Motion. She was promoted to CTO in 2022 — and was even named interim CEO during co-founder and CEO Sam Altman’s brief ouster.

Murati is among several OpenAI executives to leave recently; OpenAI’s chief research officer and research VP announced their departures hours after she did. A week later, OpenAI said it had raised $6.6 billion in the largest VC round of all time.

OpenAI reportedly plans to increase ChatGPT’s price to $44 within five years

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OpenAI is reportedly telling investors that it plans on charging $22 a month to use ChatGPT by the end of the year. The company also plans to aggressively increase the monthly price over the next five years up to $44.

The documents obtained by shows that OpenAI took in $300 million in revenue this August, and expects to make $3.7 billion in sales by the end of the year. Various expenses such as salaries, rent and operational costs will cause the company to lose $5 billion this year.

OpenAI is reportedly circulating the documents the NYT reported on as part of a drive to find new investors to prevent or lessen its financial shortfall. Fortunately, OpenAI is raising money on a $150 billion valuation, and a new round of investments could bring in as much as $7 billion.

OpenAI is also reportedly in the midst of switching from . The business model allows for the removal of any caps on investor returns so they’ll have more room to negotiate for new investors at possibly higher rates.

OpenAI might raise the price of ChatGPT to $44 by 2029

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ChatGPT could get more expensive to use in coming years.

The New York Times, citing internal OpenAI docs, reports that OpenAI is planning to raise the price of individual ChatGPT subscriptions from $20 per month to $22 per month by the end of the year. A steeper increase will come over the next five years; by 2029, OpenAI expects it’ll charge $44 per month for ChatGPT Plus.

The aggressive moves reflect pressure on OpenAI from investors to narrow its losses. While the company’s monthly revenue reached $300 million in August, according to the New York Times, OpenAI expects to lose roughly $5 billion this year. Expenditures like staffing, office rent, and AI training infrastructure are to blame. ChatGPT alone was at one point reportedly costing OpenAI $700,000 per day.

OpenAI could face a blowback if it increases prices too quickly. While ChatGPT has roughly 10 million paying users today, surveys suggest that many believe the current $20-per-month price is too high.