Last week, OpenAI introduced a new artificial intelligence (AI) agent, which has started to become available to users. On July 18, the San Francisco-based company announced its new offering, ChatGPT Agent, capable of handling a diverse range of tasks. However, almost a week after the announcement, users reported that the option to access the AI agent was still missing. On Thursday, OpenAI acknowledged the delay in the rollout and confirmed that the feature was being added to the website and desktop applications for paying subscribers.
ChatGPT Agent Experiences a Rollout Delay
In an update posted on X (formerly Twitter), OpenAI’s official account announced that ChatGPT Agent has been fully released to all Plus, Pro, and Team users. The post included an apology for the delay, although no specific reasons were provided for the hold-up. Additionally, many users took to the comments to express that they had not yet received the feature.
ChatGPT Agent is seen as an upgrade over the previous Operator tool launched last year. While both tools can operate independently, Agent extends its capabilities to handle more complex tasks, including those that require multiple command executions. Consequently, OpenAI has indicated that the Operator will be phased out in the coming weeks.
At the time of its release, OpenAI highlighted that ChatGPT Agent could navigate websites and interfaces like Operator, synthesize information akin to its Deep Research tool, and leverage the conversational skills inherent to ChatGPT.
To perform tasks, the Agent is equipped with a text-based browser for information retrieval, a visual browser for web interaction, an integrated development environment (IDE) for programming tasks, and access to public application programming interfaces (APIs). It operates on its own virtual computer that grants it access to these various tools.
Furthermore, ChatGPT Agent can utilize connectors to interface with third-party platforms and data hubs, such as Gmail and GitHub. The agent facilitates collaborative efforts by allowing users to take control of tasks, log into accounts, or make modifications to ongoing work. Users will notice a small window within the chat interface to monitor the Agent’s activities in real time.
