☕️ 2025 Will Be Big For AI Agents - OpenAI Kicks Off The Year with Operator

​Sam Altman's memo​ about AI agents "joining the workforce" in 2025 takes their first steps to become a reality with the release of Operator, the company's first major agent product. Other key takeaways of the week include:

• SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI announce a $500 billion US AI data center venture named Stargate Project

• Mistral CEO and co-founder Arthur Mensch confirms that the French AI startup is preparing for an IPO

• Another $1 billion from Google - The tech giant's investment in OpenAI rival Anthropic continues to grow

Join us at AI Tangle as we untangle this week's happenings in AI!

OpenAI takes its first major step into AI agent tech with the release of Operator

Not long ​after rumors of OpenAI's elusive AI agent nearing its launch​ began popping up, the AI poster child pulled the trigger and released its first attempt at changing the playing field - Operator. ​As detailed in the company's blog​, Operator is a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform tasks on the web, all powered by OpenAI's Computer-Using Agent (CUA) model.

What more do we know of Operator?

The CUA model, specifically trained to interact with websites, combines the vision capabilities of GPT-4o and advanced reasoning from OpenAI's more advanced models, likely o1. Operator has been promised to automate tasks ranging from online shopping to reserving restaurants, though OpenAI warns that the CUA isn't perfect - it might struggle with more specialized tasks. Tasks like sending emails or banking transactions, however, require user supervision for security reasons.

Operator is currently out as a research preview, and only users in the US with the $200/mo Pro subscription plan will have access to it, though a rollout to Plus, Team, and Enterprise tiers will follow shortly. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman claimed Operator would be available in other countries soon enough, though European users specifically will have to wait a while.

SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI shake hands for a joint venture to pour $500 billion into US AI data centers

Earlier this week, ​the Stargate Project​ was unveiled at a press conference by SoftBank, Oracle, and OpenAI representatives at the White House, where President Donald Trump spoke at length about investment plans in US infrastructure. The goal is to pour $500 billion over four years into data centers in the US, starting with Texas, with an initial commitment of $100 billion, of which ​SoftBank and OpenAI have already pledged $19 billion each​. Additionally, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Arm are named as additional technical partners in what is one of the largest ventures in the US' AI sector.

French AI startup Mistral confirmed by company CEO Arthur Mensch to be setting up for an IPO

Following an ​interview with Bloomberg at the World Economic Forum​, Arthur Mensch, the co-founder and CEO of French AI startup Mistral, said that the company is preparing for an IPO while expanding into Asia-Pacific with a new office in Singapore. On top of that, Mensch also dismissed any acquisition rumors involving Microsoft, which, so far, has invested €15 million in the startup. Founded in April 2023 by former DeepMind and Meta researchers, Mistral has grown rapidly and raising $1.14 billion at a $6 billion valuation, with its most notable offerings including its ​Mistral Large​ and ​Le Chat​.

Google invests a further $1 billion in Silicon Valley AI unicorn Anthropic

Google is set to invest over $1 billion in AI startup Anthropic, separate from a recent $2 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, valuing the firm at $60 billion, ​according to an article by Financial Times​. This adds to ​Google's previous $2 billion worth of investment in the company​. Anthropic, a key rival of OpenAI, generates $875 million in annualized revenue through direct sales and partnerships like Amazon Web Services, through which it primarily sells access to enterprise clients to its models and technology.

Microsoft gets demoted from its position as OpenAI's exclusive cloud computing provider

On top of the Stargate news, Microsoft no longer finds itself as OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider but retains the "right of first refusal" for additional computing needs, ​as explained in a blog post by the tech giant​. Despite OpenAI's expanded partnerships and a recently made "new, large Azure commitment" for products and model training, Microsoft still holds onto exclusive API rights and IP usage for integration into their products, like Copilot.

ChatGPT goes down worldwide once again as OpenAI begins investigating the "increased errors"

ChatGPT has yet again experienced a significant outage on Thursday this week, with, as of writing, over 10,000 users in the UK alone reporting issues via Downdetector. Users encountered a "bad gateway error," and OpenAI has yet to provide an official explanation for the cause. The outage began at 11:00 GMT that day, disrupting services for many of the ​chatbot's 300 million weekly users​. While some users were understandably frustrated, ​others joked about the downtime on social media​ to highlight just how much they or others depend on it for everyday tasks.

Battery manufacturer SES secures $10 million in contracts to build AI-developed batteries

SES AI, a Li-Metal battery manufacturer, has recently secured contracts worth up to $10 million with two global OEM partners to develop AI-discovered materials for automotive batteries. These contracts build on SES's AI-powered Molecular Universe project, ​which recently delivered the first battery using an AI-discovered electrolyte​. Company CEO and founder Qichao Hu highlighted the contracts as a milestone for AI-driven battery innovation. SES' shares rose in accordance, up to 60% in premarket trading that day following the announcement.

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AI-Developed Drugs Are Coming Full Circle (​3-min read​)

Aside from coding, one area that AI has been increasingly more prominent is in healthcare, and at the World Economic Forum, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis talked in length about his enthusiasm, expecting AI-designed pharmaceuticals to be in clinical trials as early as the end of 2025.

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Whether AI is overhyped or underhyped by one public figure or another, AI is advancing at rapid speeds. Although he's not calling it AGI, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei believes the technology could overtake human capabilities not long after 2027.