Researchers Teach AI Systems to Act as Autonomous Online Agents, Raising Concerns Over Automation

Researchers are teaching AI systems like ChatGPT to act as autonomous 'agents' that can perform tasks across the internet.

These AI agents can generate code to control software apps, websites, and more to do things like play Minecraft, book flights, make charts.

The technology behind ChatGPT is adept at writing code, allowing agents access to application programming interfaces (APIs) on the web.

Companies see commercial potential in AI agents as virtual assistants to automate tasks, but it could also threaten many jobs.

Some researchers are building agents that can use software tools the way humans do, by analyzing videos of people using mouse and keyboard.