Would you trust your agenda to artificial intelligence? OpenAI seems willing to let you do that with ChatGPT. You may have already tried telling Siri not to forget your meeting or Alexa to notify you of a birthday, but now we’re going one step further. Imagine an assistant that can not only remind you of key dates, but also organize your weekstrack information on the internet and offer you personalized updates.
That’s the promise of Task, the new ChatGPT feature released by OpenAI. But, What does this advance imply? Are we facing limited evolution or the beginning of the long-awaited autonomous agents?
While OpenAI CEO Sam Altman assures that 2025 will be a crucial year for AI agents, Tasks appears as a preliminary version of what these technologies could achieve. However, this small step raises a bigger question: to what extent do we want a virtual assistant to act for us?
The birth of scheduled tasks: what is Tasks and how it works
The launch of Tasks marks a milestone for OpenAI, offering users the ability to schedule reminders and recurring requests with ChatGPT. Through a simple interface, users can set tasks such as receiving reminders about document expiration, receiving weekly plans, or even tracking event tickets in their area.
For now, however, its use is limited to paying users.
How do you set up a task in ChatGPT?
The process is quite direct. From a drop-down menu in the ChatGPT interface, users select the “GPT-4 with scheduled tasks” option. From there, they just need to specify the reminder or request they want to schedule.
For example:
- “Remind me to renew my passport in six months”
- “Every Monday, tell me what the weather will be like this week”
- “Tell me every morning at 7 the news of the day”
Additionally, OpenAI has integrated a “task manager” in the web version, where users can manage, edit or delete their tasks. This simplifies access and control over scheduled activities.
A step towards AI agents… but with limitations
Although these features feel advanced, Tasks is not completely independent. For example, ChatGPT can search for information at regular intervals, but does not have the ability to perform continuous actions in the background. This means you can’t ask them to monitor real-time concert ticket availability or purchase something on your behalf.
Of course, this may be the next step towards the so-called AI agents, a concept of systems capable of acting autonomouslywhich has been a recurring theme in OpenAI’s vision. Although Tasks is not yet a fully functional agent, it does lay the groundwork for future implementations.
An AI agent is a system designed to perform actions independently, based on the understanding of language and human interactions. While traditional smart speakers (such as Siri or Alexa) are limited to executing direct commandsAI agents can combine multiple tasks and act without constant supervision.
According to Bloomberg, OpenAI is currently working on a project called “Operator”which promises to take these capabilities to another level. This agent could write code, book travel, and even handle more complex tasks.
With every technological advance, new challenges arise. AI agents have the potential to revolutionize the way we work and manage our daily lives, but they also raise ethical and security concerns. For example:
- Privacy and control: How do we ensure that an AI agent does not access sensitive information or make decisions that could be harmful?
- Misuse: Could these tools be used for malicious activities, such as fraud or espionage?
- Labor impact: If AI agents are able to join the “workforce,” what consequences will this have in sectors where automation is already a threat?
The introduction of Tasks is just the tip of the iceberg of what OpenAI could have in store. By allowing users to set personalized reminders and recurring requests, the company has taken an important step towards integrating artificial intelligence into our daily routine. However, this advance also leads us to reflect on the balance between utility and dependence.
To what extent are we willing to delegate decisions and tasks to technology?
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