OpenAI's Operator agent wants to tackle your online chores – just don’t expect it to nail every task

OpenAI on Thursday launched a human-directed AI agent called Operator that can use a web browser by itself to accomplish various online tasks, or at least try to do so. As demonstrated by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, software engineer Yash Kumar, researcher Casey Chu, and technical staff member Reiichiro Nakano, the Operator agent …

[DS999]

I've long thought "personal assistant" is the huge opportunity for Siri, Gemini etc.

If it works it would really help your daily life. But I'm going to be letting others beta test it for a few years before I risk letting it go wild with my credit card based giving it instructions I hope it understands and follows.

I wouldn't pay $200/month for it or anything like that either. But I could see $10 or $20 a month, depending on how much time it actually saved me per week.

[Inventor of the Marmite Laser]

Re: I've long thought "personal assistant" is the huge opportunity for Siri, Gemini etc.

£10/£20 a month? I suppose I'd give it a go if they paid me that much.

[Anonymous Coward]

So an AI agent decides to place an order. What's the contractual relationship between you, the supplier, the AI, whoever provides the AI and the person or company on whom the order has been placed?

Who sues whom if things go titsup / payment fails / warranty claim / recurring payments / minors buying age restricted items?

[find users who cut cat tail]

Of course it is all your fault. You don't even have to read the fine print – we know what's written there.

[Andy Non]

Arriving at the restaurant...

Sorry sir, your table for 12 is booked for 2 pm.

But I asked the agent to book a table for 2 at 12.

[IGotOut]

Thank you..

....for solving a problem I don't actually have.

Let's see, so I type into a website some text to say I want to book a table at Chain Restaurant at 8pm.

Off it goes and the following happens

It finds the table, but is unable to put a deposit because, sure I'll give that info to chatGPT

It is unable to find a table, so books it at a completely different time.

It books a table with same name in a different country.

This is what they don't get.

If I have to type into chatgpt to go off and do a booking, I may as well type in the fucking website and know it's been done.

Do these people actually ASK real people what they want?

No need, to answer I already know.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Thank you..

"If I have to type into chatgpt to go off and do a booking, I may as well type in the fucking website and know it's been done."

Type ... ?

[Tron]

No. Not now, not ever.

I'm so glad you have to pay for this crap, as it offers an easy way of avoiding it.

[Steve Aubrey]

quidquid Latine dictum sit altum videtur

'And it's said to operate under the supervision of a "monitor model" that watches for dubious behavior'

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

[m4r35n357]

Word soup

Struggling to focus on this incessant deluge of verbal diarrhoea . . .

[breakfast]

Why?

I can't think of anything I would trust this tool to do - I don't love ordering groceries but I hate to think of the chaos my food cupboards would be in after a few weeks of LLMs taking ownership of the task. I can see that it might be a useful tool for people with limited vision in creating a much wider ranging voice interface, but I doubt that market is big enough to justify the valuation on OpenAI.

It's almost as though they're falling forward, desperately announcing more new products as the limitations of their existing ones start to show up and they need to keep justifying their demands for truly gargantuan investment.

It might be worth a bit of money to me once it can take out the bins and tidy the kitchen nicely, but that doesn't appear to be the kind of work they're prioritising.

[Fonant]

Re: Why?

This. They're snake oil salespeople trying to get you to buy a bullshit-generator-based automation tool that doesn't help you in any way.

Waiting for the "AI" bubble to pop. Any moment now...

[AnAnonymousCanuck]

I Do Want! But Must Be Mine On My Machine With My Ethics

Subject says most of it, but filtering phone calls, answering /deleting junk emails, searching Amazon if I'm forced to use it :). is what I need.

YMMV

AAC