OpenAI's new ChatGPT agent reasons, researches, and run its own computer
An AI agent is similar to an AI app that can retain extensive information about a user and an automated workflow, reasoning its way toward task completion. This new ChatGPT agent is a hybrid. OpenAI previously released an agent called Operator, which can browse the web and access tools. Another agent, Deep Research, can search the web and reason through information to produce a comprehensive report on a topic. The new agent combines the strengths of both tools, along with ChatGPT's built-in intelligence and conversational fluency.
OpenAI said in a press release on Thursday that the ChatGPT agent carries out tasks using its own virtual computer, 'fluidly shifting between reasoning and action to handle complex workflows from start to finish.'
For example, OpenAI says the agent can analyze a user's calendar to generate a briefing on upcoming client meetings, or plan and purchase ingredients for a dinner party. A business might ask the agent to create a slide deck based on in-depth research about a group of competing companies.
The model behind these agents is designed to take in new directions after starting a task. Users can approve tasks the agent wants to carry out, redirect it if it goes off track, or adjust the goal's details.
The ChatGPT agent can run code and prompt the user to log into websites when necessary. It might also use APIs to access data sources, such as files stored in Google Drive.
Importantly, the agent requests permission before performing consequential actions like sending emails, submitting forms, making purchases, or handling personal information. The user can take control of the browser or stop the agent's tasks at any time.
And the agent won't do just anything. OpenAI says the agent rejects harmful or illegal requests. It won't handle high-risk tasks such as financial transactions or legal advice.
The new hybrid agent launches today for ChatGPT Pro, Plus, and Team subscribers. Users can enable it by selecting 'agent mode' from the tools dropdown within ChatGPT.
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Fast Company
a few seconds ago
- Fast Company
How prominent brands manage different customer segments as they grow
Annie Wilson is a senior lecturer of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Ryan Hamilton is an associate professor of marketing at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. They have both served as consultants to top brands across all manner of industries. What's the big idea? The Growth Dilemma is about how to manage relationships between customer segments. As brands grow and attract new customers, they serve a wider variety of groups who tend to want different things from the brand. Almost inevitably, as brands get bigger and bigger, this leads to conflict or disagreement between groups of customers who don't necessarily agree on who the brand is supposed to serve, what it stands for, or how it should be used. Below, coauthors Annie Wilson and Ryan Hamilton share five key insights from their new book, The Growth Dilemma: Managing Your Brand When Different Customers Want Different Things. Listen to the audio version—read by Annie and Ryan—in the Next Big Idea App. 1. Segments of people relate to each other in predictable ways We've identified four different relationship types when it comes to customer segments. The first type of relationship is separate communities. Some brands serve different segments of customers in such a way that they don't step on each other's toes much. Customer segments may want different things from the brand, but it doesn't tend to cause problems. For example, Lego still serves its traditional customer segment of children who are looking for an interactive toy, but it also has a large and growing segment of what it refers to as 'adult friends' of Lego. These are adults who purchase Lego as collectibles or models to display in their homes. Lego serves both customer segments without much problem. The second type of relationship is connected communities. These are offerings that become more valuable when more people use them. This includes offerings like social media platforms or shared platforms like Venmo. Software platforms like Microsoft Office are another example because the more popular Microsoft Office becomes, the easier it is to transfer files between people. The third relationship type is leader follower segments. This occurs when one segment is cooler, aspirational, or expert in some way, and because they use the brand, there is another segment of followers who like the brand because of those leaders. One example of this is Crocs. Crocs became cool a few years ago, in large part, because a group of trendsetters decided they were cool. Once they started using the brand, that gave everyone else social permission to also start wearing them without being embarrassed. The fourth relationship type is incompatible segments. This is when brands try forcing segments together that want dramatically different things. They have different values or different preferences, and trying to serve them simultaneously causes a lot of heat and friction between these groups of customers. This can blow up in the face of the brand. 2. Growth itself can cause problems Growth tends to be seen as just a good thing: We're going to get more customers in, get more revenue, and that's going to mean more profit. The big argument that we make is that some of the relationship types can lead to sustainable, profitable growth. However, other types of growth can be dangerous for a brand and cost the brand money in pursuit of that growth. 3. There are four main sources of conflict between customer segments The first source of conflict is functional. This is when one segment of customers can't use the brand's offerings the way they want to because another segment is using it in an incompatible way. Think of Starbucks. Somebody who wants to go to Starbucks to hang out and read the newspaper with a cup of coffee comes into conflict with the mobile order segment who wants to quickly get their coffee and leave. The piling up of mobile orders and the masses of people rushing in to grab their drinks in a hurry ruins the experience of a lot of third-placers. Starbucks has managed this functional conflict in various ways throughout much of its corporate history and continues to grapple with it today. 'Some types of growth can be dangerous for a brand and cost the brand money in pursuit of that growth.' The second source of conflict is brand image. This is the idea that because one group of customers is using the brand, the image of the brand comes into question for another group of customers. In the 1990s, Tiffany & Co. began selling a large number of more affordable silver products to less affluent customers, mostly teenagers trying to profess their love to high school sweethearts. This created a brand image conflict for wealthier customers who thought, Is this really Audrey Hepburn's Tiffany if I have teenagers buying cheap silver jewelry from them? Tiffany had to figure out how to manage that brand image conflict before the brand became too diluted or eroded. The next source of conflict is user identity. This is the idea that because one group of customers uses the brand, another group can no longer use it as a signal of their identity. For a lot of its history, wearing Vans signaled that you are a skateboarder. As Vans has become more fashionable and people who don't know how to skateboard wear Vans, it has created user identity conflict for the skaters who feel like wearing Vans no longer strongly or clearly signals their skater identity. Vans has to figure out how to protect that skater identity for the skater audience while still inviting in these more fashionable audiences. Lastly, we have ideological conflict. If a brand aligns itself with a certain group of customers, it can create ideological conflict with another group of customers. Target has gone back and forth on whether it will support LGBTQ+ customers through its products and messaging. It has created and recreated ideological conflict between groups of customers who either want Target to support LGBTQ+ rights or those who don't want Target to take that stance. These different sources of conflict can either be managed or avoided by building fences, ladders, or planks. 4. You can manage segment relationships using fences, ladders, and planks Fences is the idea that you want to create separation between segments that might otherwise come into conflict. Carhartt, famous for its workwear, has a segment of customers who are blue-collar workers who wear Carhartt because it is durable and good for working in. Carhartt also has a segment of customers who like Carhartt because their clothes have become fashionable—even on the red carpet. To prevent conflict between these groups, Carhartt keeps them separate. They market different products to them and use different messaging. Carhartt even has different stores for them, and that keeps both segments happy because they can get what they want without interacting with each other. Another way you can manage these relationships is by creating ladders. This is when you make one group of customers clearly higher status or more important than another group of customers. You're making it explicit or implicit that one group of customers are leaders and the others are followers. Tiffany & Co. offers various lines of jewelry, each with a distinct price tag that clearly signals the leaders (who pay millions of dollars for Tiffany jewelry) and the followers (who pay hundreds or thousands). It creates a hierarchy that keeps segments happy because it allows them to give customers what they want without eroding the brand image. The last thing you can do is create planks. You're essentially showing some group of customers the door. Another way of saying this is firing customer segments. There are times when two customer segments are in conflict, and the smartest thing to do is let one of them go or force one of them away from the brand. There was a time when Six Flags offered various pricing discounts and incentives. Many teenagers would buy tickets to Six Flags because they were cheap or discounted, and then they would visit the parks, enjoy the all-you-can-eat benefits, and act like teenagers. It ruined the experience for many other customers who wanted to enjoy Six Flags or potentially bring their families. Six Flags essentially showed those teenagers the door by changing the pricing incentives so that those customers didn't get as much access to the park. They implicitly fired those customer segments. Ridership overall did drop, but the park made more money from other customer segments that wanted to return because they had restored the park's experience for them. 5. You are never done managing customer segment relationships. Managing customer segments isn't something that can be applied once to permanently solve problems. A different set of conflicts is bound to come up later. This is just the evolving nature of markets: new segments emerge, old segments fade, and brands change their positioning over time. We are proposing a discipline for managing growth and customers over time, which is that you constantly have to manage these relationships to avoid conflict. 'You need to constantly think of different ways to prevent or mitigate that conflict.' Any time you bring different groups of people together, they can come into conflict. You need to constantly think of different ways to prevent or mitigate that conflict. For example, at a country club that I went to growing up, new members wanted different things from the club than what old members wanted. Club managers had to figure out how to build fences, ladders, or planks between those customer segments. But these instances are everywhere, beyond brands, like that one friend who went on a family vacation and discovered that their in-laws had different expectations of the vacation than their own family. We see this in politics when a candidate tries to expand their base and increase their popularity. They try to appeal to a broader audience with diverse values. They have to figure out how to keep people who want different things happy simultaneously. We even see this within organizations. As organizations hire more employees, you sometimes get factions that have different interests. Whether it's in marketing and brand management or any other domain, this fundamental idea of managing the different things that different groups of people want from an entity requires constant monitoring and supervision.
CNET
a few seconds ago
- CNET
Mortgages Cool Off for Homeseekers: Today's Mortgage Rates on July 24, 2025
Check out CNET Money's weekly mortgage rate forecast for a more in-depth look at what's next for Fed rate cuts, labor data and inflation. The average interest rate for a standard 30-year fixed mortgage is 6.77% today, down -0.01% from seven days ago. The average rate for a 15-year fixed mortgage is 6.01%, which is an increase of 0.02% from the same time last week. To qualify for lower mortgage rates, experts recommend making a higher down payment, improving your credit and comparison shopping between lenders. What's behind high rates these days? Lingering inflation, threats of a global trade war and policy turbulence have created an uncertain economic outlook. In response, the Federal Reserve has adopted a wait-and-see approach and kept interest rates steady in 2025. Most economists predict the Fed will start lowering rates in September, particularly if President Trump eases some of his aggressive tariff measures or if the labor market continues to deteriorate. Prospective homebuyers shouldn't bank on mortgage rates becoming affordable overnight. While cheaper borrowing costs gradually trickle down to the housing market, the Fed doesn't directly set lenders' mortgage rates. In today's unaffordable housing market, mortgage rates are just one piece of the puzzle. Prospective buyers still have to contend with high home prices and skyrocketing homeownership expenses. The possibility of a job-loss recession is also pushing many households to tighten their budgets and take on less financial risk. When mortgage rates start to fall, be ready to take advantage. Experts recommend shopping around and comparing multiple offers to get the lowest rate. Enter your information here to get a custom quote from one of CNET's partner lenders. About these rates: Bankrate's tool features rates from partner lenders that you can use when comparing multiple mortgage rates. Are mortgage rates considered high right now? The average 30-year fixed rate has hovered just below 7% for the last several months, resulting in cost-prohibitive monthly payments. Mortgage rates primarily take their cues from the 10-year Treasury yield, which reflects investors' collective expectations regarding inflation, labor market health, upcoming monetary policy shifts and the impact of global factors like tariffs. If investors anticipate persistently high inflation or significant government borrowing, they'll demand higher returns on their bonds, which in turn keeps mortgage rates elevated. "Rates could fall if inflation keeps cooling and the labor market softens," said Jeb Smith, licensed real estate agent and member of CNET Money's expert review board. "On the other hand, tariffs could create new inflation pressure. Add in government deficits and increased bond supply, and that puts upward pressure on rates." Even as the Fed eventually starts to dial back interest rates, experts caution that significant market volatility is likely. As a result, homebuyers are adopting a more patient and strategic approach to financing, comparing various loan types and planning ahead. "Some are waiting, others are getting pre-approved now so they're ready to act if rates fall," said Smith. For a look at mortgage rate movement in recent years, see the chart below. Expert predictions for mortgage rates in 2025 While the housing market was expected to rebound in 2025, it has remained stagnant due to ongoing economic and political uncertainties. Median family income has not kept pace with the surge in housing costs, requiring many households to earn double or triple their salary to afford a modest home in some cities. Mortgage rates would have to take a big step down, close to 6% or below, to drum up significant homebuying demand. But according to Smith, the more likely scenario is that interest rates will take modest and gradual steps down over the coming months. A return to the record-low rates, around 2-3%, we saw during the pandemic would only happen if the economy tipped into a severe recession. Fannie Mae's forecast puts rates around 6.5% by the end of 2025 and 6.1% by the end of 2026. Ongoing uncertainty could cause rates to stay high, or increase further. For instance, if tariffs cause inflation to reignite, which most experts and Fed officials expect, it could result in higher bond yields and fewer interest rate cuts by the central bank. Neither would help bring mortgage rates down for prospective buyers. What is a good mortgage type and term? Each mortgage has a loan term, or payment schedule. The most common mortgage terms are 15 and 30 years, although 10-, 20- and 40-year mortgages also exist. With a fixed-rate mortgage, the interest rate is set for the duration of the loan, offering stability. With an adjustable-rate mortgage, the interest rate is only fixed for a certain amount of time (commonly five, seven or 10 years), after which the rate adjusts annually based on the market. Fixed-rate mortgages are a better option if you plan to live in a home in the long term, but adjustable-rate mortgages may offer lower interest rates upfront. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages For a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, the average rate you'll pay is 6.77% today. A 30-year fixed mortgage is the most common loan term. It will often have a higher interest rate than a 15-year mortgage, but you'll have a lower monthly payment. 15-year fixed-rate mortgages Today, the average rate for a 15-year, fixed mortgage is 6.01%. 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Though mortgage rates and home prices are high, the housing market won't be unaffordable forever. It's always a good time to save for a down payment and improve your credit score to help you secure a competitive mortgage rate when the time is right. Save for a bigger down payment: Though a 20% down payment isn't required, a larger upfront payment means taking out a smaller mortgage, which will help you save in interest. Boost your credit score: You can qualify for a conventional mortgage with a 620 credit score, but a higher score of at least 740 will get you better rates. Pay off debt: Experts recommend a debt-to-income ratio of 36% or less to help you qualify for the best rates. Not carrying other debt will put you in a better position to handle your monthly payments. Research loans and assistance: Government-sponsored loans have more flexible borrowing requirements than conventional loans. Some government-sponsored or private programs can also help with your down payment and closing costs. Shop around for lenders: Researching and comparing multiple loan offers from different lenders can help you secure the lowest mortgage rate for your situation.
Android Authority
a few seconds ago
- Android Authority
Google's Phone app could make resuming on-hold calls easier (APK teardown)
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority TL;DR Google is testing a new 'Unhold' shortcut in call notifications through its Phone app. The new button replaces the 'Mute' button whenever a user puts a call on hold. Although not yet live, this change would improve usability by allowing users to resume held calls more efficiently. Google doesn't mess around that much with the Google Phone app. It makes sense too, as you don't want to disturb muscle memory for people for crucial tasks like calls. But every now and then, the company reassesses what users expect from the Phone app. Recently, Google began rolling out the Phone app's Material 3 Expressive redesign and new interfaces for the incoming call screen to beta users. We've now spotted Google working on a helpful button swap in the ongoing call notification, which will be useful for people who often put calls on hold. Authority Insights story on Android Authority. Discover You're reading anstory on Android Authority. Discover Authority Insights for more exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage you won't find anywhere else. An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release. On Android phones that use the Google Phone app, you get a notification whenever you receive a call. This notification lets you accept or decline the call, and it turns into an ongoing call notification if you accept the call. The ongoing call notification gives users the buttons to hang up, put the call on speaker, or mute their phone's microphone right from the notification itself, which is very handy if you switch out of the main call screen. The ongoing call notification doesn't give you an option, but users can also put the call on hold on the main call screen. If you do so and then switch out of the main call screen, you don't get an option to unhold and resume the call until you switch back to the main call screen. Google Phone v184.0 beta includes code for a new Unhold button in the ongoing call notification that appears during ongoing calls. Using this button, users can unhold and resume calls straight from the ongoing call notification without switching back to the main call screen. We managed to activate the feature to give you an early look: Current options during ongoing call Current options when call is put on hold Upcoming options when call is put on hold The current screenshots show the usual options we see during a call, which remain the same even when a call is put on hold. In the future, when you put a call on hold, you will see a new Unhold button that replaces the Mute button. Tapping on it will unhold and resume the call. The button swap makes sense since muting a call that is already on hold effectively does nothing, and a user is much more likely to want to unhold and resume in that situation. Curiously, as you may have noticed, there is no way to put the call on hold through the notification. You will still have to initiate the action from the main call screen. It would be nice if Google allowed users to choose between a mute button and a hold button in the ongoing call notification. Note that this unhold button is not currently live for users. We'll keep you updated when we learn more. Got a tip? Talk to us! Email our staff at Email our staff at news@ . You can stay anonymous or get credit for the info, it's your choice.
