Agents

OpenAI launched deep research in ChatGPT, an agentic feature that spends 5 to 30 minutes finding, analyzing, and synthesizing hundreds of web pages, images, and PDFs into a cited report. It runs on a version of OpenAI o3 optimized for web browsing and data analysis and was trained on real-world browser and Python tasks; after the April 2025 update, Plus/Team/Enterprise/Edu get 25 queries per month, Pro 250, and Free 5. The key point is a productized workflow for multi-step, source-backed research, not a basic search refresh.

OpenAI published the Operator System Card on Jan 23, 2025 and said its Computer-Using Agent can be deployed only if its post-mitigation score is Medium or lower. The card rates CBRN, cybersecurity, and model autonomy as Low, and persuasion as Medium; it highlights harmful tasks, model mistakes, and prompt injection. The key mechanism is human confirmation plus task refusal: critical steps like financial transactions, emails, and calendar deletion need approval, while stock trading is fully restricted.

OpenAI released a research preview of Computer-Using Agent on Jan 23, 2025, and is exposing it first through Operator to U.S. ChatGPT Pro users. The model combines GPT-4o vision with RL-based reasoning and acts through screenshots, a mouse, and a keyboard; it scored 38.1% on OSWorld, 58.1% on WebArena, and 87.0% on WebVoyager. The key point is API-free GUI control, while sensitive actions still require user confirmation.

OpenAI released Operator on Jan 23, 2025 as a research preview for U.S. Pro users; it uses its own browser to click, type, and scroll through web tasks. It runs on Computer-Using Agent, combining GPT-4o vision with RL-based reasoning; the post says it sets SOTA on WebArena and WebVoyager but does not disclose scores. The key boundary is control: login, payment, and CAPTCHA flows hand control back to users, and a July 17 update says it was folded into ChatGPT agent.

OpenAI released MLE-bench, a benchmark built from 75 Kaggle competitions to measure ML engineering ability in AI agents. The best setup, o1-preview with AIDE scaffolding, reached at least Kaggle bronze-medal level on 16.9% of tasks; the benchmark code is open-source.

OpenAI launched a public beta of the Realtime API on Oct. 1, 2024 for all paid developers, using a persistent WebSocket to stream low-latency speech-to-speech interactions with GPT-4o. It supports function calling and interruption handling, priced at $5/1M text input tokens and $100/1M audio input tokens; the post also says audio I/O for Chat Completions would arrive in the following weeks.

OpenAI released Structured Outputs on Aug 6, 2024, making model outputs conform to developer-supplied JSON Schemas; `gpt-4o-2024-08-06` scored 100% on complex schema-following evals versus under 40% for `gpt-4-0613`. The feature is enabled with `strict: true` in function calling and works on tool-supporting models including `gpt-4-0613`, `gpt-3.5-turbo-0613`, and later. The key shift is constrained decoding plus schema training, not just valid JSON from JSON mode.

OpenAI says ChatGPT is getting memory and new controls, with 2 changes disclosed in the title. The body is empty, so default state, opt-out scope, and user-tier availability are not disclosed. The key issue is control granularity; the title alone is not enough to judge product impact.