Key insights of today’s newsletter: For a long time chatbots failed to meet expectations due to their inability to handle the complexity of human conversations. The emergence of AI agents, powered by generative AI, represents a new generation of assistants that are more flexible, can do stuff for you, and in the near future may even act on your behalf.
As you may know, the difference between assistants and agents and the evolution to agents has been one of my favorite topics since 2018. I'd caution people to look at the definitions of agent anytime someone uses the term. As you mention, Altman is using it as a repositioning technique. The most basic form of a user agent is that it does something for you without your direct oversight. You may have initiated the activity, but the agent works on your behalf to fulfill a known or predicted goal. An assistant also does so, but operates on a request-response model and limited scope per task. An assistant can fetch things for you or execute tasks, but always has explicit instructions as opposed to standing instructions or capabilities. Many people like to call assistants agents, when they don't actually have agency.
Sometimes agents can be assistants. When R2D2 responds to Anakin Skywalker with information about a planet, it is acting as an assistant. When Luke Skywalker sends R2D2 into a enemy space ship and asks him to find a port where he can download a map of the ship and shut off access to all turbo lifts except for ones that will lead the team to the right location, it is acting as an agent, navigating a complex set of variables to achieve a state goal. There is another discussion here about imperative and declarable programming, but we can leave it as agency.
There are also system agents which work on behalf of systems.
Agents are hard. The broader the scope of responsibility, capability, and variability, the harder. I am a big believer in agents. Simple agents already exist and we will see more of them in 2024. However, the agents that are the extension of assistants will take longer to develop. The improvement of assistants will necessarily precede the improvement in agents. As least, that is the view from this corner.
As you may know, the difference between assistants and agents and the evolution to agents has been one of my favorite topics since 2018. I'd caution people to look at the definitions of agent anytime someone uses the term. As you mention, Altman is using it as a repositioning technique. The most basic form of a user agent is that it does something for you without your direct oversight. You may have initiated the activity, but the agent works on your behalf to fulfill a known or predicted goal. An assistant also does so, but operates on a request-response model and limited scope per task. An assistant can fetch things for you or execute tasks, but always has explicit instructions as opposed to standing instructions or capabilities. Many people like to call assistants agents, when they don't actually have agency.
Sometimes agents can be assistants. When R2D2 responds to Anakin Skywalker with information about a planet, it is acting as an assistant. When Luke Skywalker sends R2D2 into a enemy space ship and asks him to find a port where he can download a map of the ship and shut off access to all turbo lifts except for ones that will lead the team to the right location, it is acting as an agent, navigating a complex set of variables to achieve a state goal. There is another discussion here about imperative and declarable programming, but we can leave it as agency.
There are also system agents which work on behalf of systems.
Agents are hard. The broader the scope of responsibility, capability, and variability, the harder. I am a big believer in agents. Simple agents already exist and we will see more of them in 2024. However, the agents that are the extension of assistants will take longer to develop. The improvement of assistants will necessarily precede the improvement in agents. As least, that is the view from this corner.
Clippy is over here, like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdqoNKCCt7A