OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has released Operator, an “AI agent” capable of taking over a computer and accomplishing tasks on its own. It’s a major (and had been a much-rumored) step in the rapidly growing tech company’s quest to transform daily life with AI.

The model underpinning Operator is a Computer-Using Agent (CUA) that combines GPT-4o's vision mode to "see" what's on the user's screen through screenshots with graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that enable Operator to interact with the screen (clicking buttons, typing, scrolling, etc.).

OpenAI is releasing a “research preview” of an AI agent called Operator that can “go to the web to perform tasks for you,” according to a blog post. “Using its own browser, it can look at a webpage and interact with it by typing,