Welcome to Get The Gist, where every weekday we share an easy-to-read summary of the latest and greatest developments in AI—news, innovations, and trends—all delivered in under 5 minutes! ⏱

In today’s edition:

• OpenAI Unveils An Autonomous AI Agent

• Perplexity Launches AI Assistant on Android

• OpenAI’s New o3-Mini Model Will Be Free

• Google Rolls Out an Extension to its Gemini App

• And more AI news….

Top Developments

OpenAI

OpenAI Unveils Operator — An Autonomous AI Agent

The Gist: OpenAI has introduced Operator, a groundbreaking AI agent that can independently complete online tasks, from booking reservations to shopping. The tool is designed to boost productivity by handling repetitive tasks.

Key Details:

• Operator uses AI to autonomously perform user-assigned tasks on the web.

• Demonstrations included booking restaurant tables and completing online shopping based on a photo of a shopping list.

• Currently available to U.S.-based subscribers of OpenAI’s $200/month Pro plan.

• OpenAI plans to expand access and lower costs while releasing more AI agents in the near future.

Perplexity

Perplexity Launches AI Assistant on Android

The Gist: Perplexity has launched a free Android app for its AI assistant, offering voice, text, and camera-based interactions for tasks like booking rides and identifying objects. The app aims to compete with ChatGPT and Google Gemini through advanced multitasking and app integration.

Key Details:

• The AI assistant can handle tasks such as making reservations, finding directions, and identifying objects using a phone camera.

• Integrates real-time web search and maintains context across multiple tasks to avoid errors like double-booking.

• Supports 15 languages and offers multimodal capabilities for versatile interaction.

• Part of Perplexity’s broader strategy to expand its ecosystem and stand out in the competitive AI assistant market.

OpenAI

OpenAI’s New o3-Mini Model Will Be Free for All ChatGPT Users

The Gist: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced that the lightweight o3-mini model, part of the latest o3 reasoning model family, will be available to all ChatGPT users, including those on the free tier—a significant shift in the company's usual rollout strategy.

Key Details:

• The o3-mini model offers faster response times and lower compute requirements than GPT-4o Turbo, with advanced reasoning and accuracy capabilities.

• Free-tier users will gain access to o3-mini, while paid users, including Plus, Teams, and Pro subscribers, will enjoy enhanced usage and continued access to GPT-4o Turbo.

• The o3 model performs internal fact and reasoning checks, enabling it to handle complex tasks in math, science, and coding with greater accuracy.

• This marks a departure from OpenAI’s typical practice of limiting new models to paid tiers initially, signaling a more inclusive approach.

Quick Gist

Anthropic has launched a "Citations" feature for its API, allowing AI responses to provide direct references to source documents (Read More).

Meta faced issues with its AI chatbot incorrectly identifying Joe Biden as the current U.S. President (Read More).

Blackrock and Microsoft announced a $30 billion fund aimed at investing in artificial intelligence infrastructure (Read More).

Google is rolling out an extension to its Gemini app, integrating it with Google Home to enable natural language smart home controls (Read More).

THAT’S IT FOR TODAY!