Roboshop How ‘AI agents’ will change the way we live

Tech firms are betting that autonomous digital assistants that carry out household tasks will be the next big thing. But can we really rely on them to get the groceries in?

Victoria Turk

I’m watching artificial intelligence order my groceries. Armed with my shopping list, it types each item into the search bar of a supermarket website, then uses its cursor to click. Watching what appears to be a digital ghost do this task is strangely transfixing. “Are you sure it’s not just a person in India?” my husband asks, peering over my shoulder. I’m trying out Operator, a new AI “agent” from OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. Made available to UK users last month, it has a similar text interface and conversational tone to ChatGPT, but rather than just answering questions, it can actually do things – provided they involve navigating a web browser. Hot on the heels of large language models, AI agents have been trumpeted as the next big thing.…

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Guardian Weekly (Digital) - 1 Issue, 14 March 2025

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