What is an AI agent? The computer science of the next wave of AI tools

Interacting with AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be fun and sometimes useful, but the next level of everyday AI goes beyond answering questions: AI agents carry out tasks for you. Making decisions, taking action When technology companies refer to AI agents, they aren’t talking about chatbots or large language models like ChatGPT. The AI agents that AI companies refer to are significant advances over large language models like ChatGPT because they possess the ability to take actions on behalf of the people and companies who use them. Uptake of AI agents will also depend on people’s willingness to give them access to potentially sensitive data: Depending on what your agent is meant to do, it might need access to your internet browser, your email, your calendar and other apps or systems that are relevant for a given assignment. Currently, developers of AI agents are keeping humans in the loop, making sure people have an opportunity to check an agent’s work before any final decisions are made.