Our introduction to AI has so far mostly involved chatbots. But soon we could have AI agents that cross over into the real world and actually carry out tasks for us. And it could be a very big deal.
According to Vox:
“…you’d have what is called an ‘AI agent,’ or an AI that acts with independent agency to pursue its goals in the world.
AI agents have been called the ‘future of artificial intelligence‘ that will ‘reinvent the way we live and work,’ the ‘next frontier of AI.‘ OpenAI is reportedly working on developing such agents, as are many different well-funded startups.
They may sound even more sci-fi than everything else you’ve already heard about AI, but AI agents are not nonsense, and if effective, could fundamentally change how we work.”
At their conference earlier this week Google made mention of their future plans for AI agents. Mashable explains:
“According to Pichai, AI Agents are still in ‘early days,’ but their description shows what Google envisions what AI can do for users.
Pichai described AI agents as ‘intelligent systems that show reasoning, planning, and memory’ and can ‘think multiple steps ahead’ to complete more compex tasks for users.
Shopping returns is a specific example used at Google I/O to give a real-world use case for AI agents. Pichai explained a scenario where a user wants to return a pair of shoes they purchased. AI agents will be able to search the user’s email inbox for the receipt, locate the order number from the email, fill out the return form on the store’s website, and schedule a pickup for the item to be returned.
Another scenario provided involves AI agents searching up local shops and services, like dog walkers and dry cleaners, for a user that just moved to a new city, so that the user has all of these locations and contacts at their disposal. A key feature mentioned here was that Gemini and Chrome would work together to complete these takes, showing how AI agents would be able to work across various software and platforms.”
So, while not actually crossing over into the real world these AI agents would be able to act independently, with agency, and carry out tasks for us across browsers and apps. Giving us actual personal assistants, not just chatbots to talk to.
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