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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman kicked off this year by saying in a blog post that 2025 would be big for AI agents, tools that can automate tasks and take actions on your behalf.

Now, we’re seeing OpenAI’s first real attempt.

OpenAI announced on Thursday that it is launching a research preview of Operator, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform certain actions.

Operator is coming to U.S. users on ChatGPT’s $200 Pro subscription plan first. OpenAI says it plans to roll this feature out to more users in its Plus, Team, and Enterprise tiers eventually.

“[Operator] will be [in] other countries soon,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during a livestream Thursday. “Europe will, unfortunately, take a while.”

This initial research preview is available through operator.chatgpt.com, but soon, OpenAI says it wants to integrate Operator into all of its ChatGPT clients.

Operator promises to automate tasks such as booking travel accommodations, making restaurant reservations, and shopping online, according to OpenAI. There are several task categories users can choose from within the Operator interface, including shopping, delivery, dining, and travel — all of which enable different kinds of automation.

When ChatGPT users activate Operator, a small window will pop up showing a dedicated web browser that the agent uses to complete tasks, along with explanations of specific actions the agent is performing. Users can still take control of their screen while Operator is working, as Operator uses its own dedicated browser.

OpenAI says that Operator is powered by a computer-using agent, or CUA, that combines the vision capabilities of the company’s GPT-4o model with the reasoning abilities from OpenAI’s more advanced models. The CUA is trained to interact with the front-end of websites, meaning it doesn’t need to use developer-facing APIs to tap into different services.

In other words, the CUA can use buttons, navigate menus, and fill out forms on a webpage — much like a human would.

OpenAI says it’s collaborating with companies like DoorDash, Instacart, Priceline, StubHub, and Uber to ensure that Operator respects these businesses’ terms of service agreements.

“The CUA model is trained to ask for user confirmation before finalizing tasks with external side effects, for example before submitting an order, sending an email, etc., so that the user can double-check the model’s work before it becomes permanent,” OpenAI writes in materials provided to TechCrunch. “[It] has already proven useful in a variety of cases, and we aim to extend that reliability across a wider range of tasks.”

But OpenAI warns the CUA isn’t perfect. The company says it “[doesn’t] expect [the] CUA to perform reliably in all scenarios just yet.”

Out of an abundance of caution, OpenAI is also requiring supervision for some tasks, like banking transactions, the CUA and Operator could perform entirely on their own. Users will need to take over to put in credit card information, for example. OpenAI says that Operator doesn’t collect or screenshot any data.

“On particularly sensitive websites, such as email, Operator requires active user supervision, ensuring users can directly catch and address any potential mistakes the model might make,” OpenAI says in its support materials.

This limits the usefulness of Operator, to be sure — but also ensures that the agent doesn’t hallucinate and, say, spend your mortgage payment on accent chairs. Google took a similar approach with its Project Mariner AI agent, which also doesn’t fill in info like credit card numbers.

Operator is OpenAI’s boldest attempt yet at creating an AI agent. Last week, OpenAI released Tasks, giving ChatGPT simple automation features such as the ability to set reminders and schedule prompts to run at a set time every day.

Tasks gave ChatGPT users some familiar, but necessary, features to make ChatGPT as practical to use as Siri or Alexa. However, Operator shows off capabilities that the previous generation of virtual assistants could never do.

AI agents have been pitched as the next big thing in AI after ChatGPT: a new technology that will change how people use the internet and their PCs. Instead of simply delivering and processing information, agents can — in theory — take actions and do things.

As OpenAI releases its first concrete take on agents, it’ll soon become clear just how realistic that vision is.

Call between Mohammed bin Salman and US president comes as kingdom seeks to deepen ties with western ally

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said Saudi Arabia aimed to invest at least $600bn in the US over the next four years, as the kingdom sought to deepen ties with its most important western ally after the return of Donald Trump to the White House.

The prince said in a Thursday phone call to congratulate Trump on his inauguration that the new US administration’s proposed reforms would “create unprecedented economic prosperity and opportunity”, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

The White House did not immediately provide a summary of the call. Secretary of state Marco Rubio and Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader — often known by his initials MBS — also spoke on the phone to discuss developments in the Middle East, the state department said on Wednesday.

Trump said on Monday that he would consider making Saudi Arabia his first foreign trip as president again if Riyadh agreed to buy $500bn worth of US products, as he claimed the kingdom did in his first stint in power.

“I did it with Saudi Arabia last time because they agreed to buy $450bn worth of our products,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office after his inauguration. “If Saudi Arabia wanted to buy another $450bn or $500bn — we’ll up it for all the inflation — I think I’d probably go.”

When he took office for his first term in 2017, Trump departed from tradition by making Saudi Arabia his first overseas destination as he attended a summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in Riyadh. Newly elected US presidents typically visit neighbouring Canada or Mexico first.

The statement about the call between Prince Mohammed and Trump did not provide details on the sectors or industries that would receive the $600bn of investment, but it said the amount could go “potentially beyond that if additional opportunities arise”.

It is unclear how much of that the $450bn repeatedly touted by Trump materialised in the form of deals and trade between the two countries during the president’s first term.

The $600bn investment pledge represents more than half of Saudi GDP, according to official figures, and comes as pressure grows on the kingdom’s budget due to softened oil prices and a widening deficit. The announcement follows comments by officials last year that Saudi Arabia would further scale back its overseas investment and shift focus towards delivering a series of mega projects, including tourist resorts and a futuristic city in the country’s north-west.

Saudi Arabia is also facing a daunting set of deadlines to build infrastructure for events including the Asian Winter Games in 2029, Expo 2030 and the 2034 World Cup.

Trump maintained close ties with Saudi Arabia during his first term, while the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund invested billions of dollars in companies run by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and former Treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, shortly after Trump left the White House.

The Trump Organization also signed deals to license Trump’s brand for real estate developments in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Gulf.

Rubio and Prince Mohammed discussed Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, as well as the threat posed by Iran, Saudi Arabia’s main regional rival.

Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic in October hit a host of Iranian military facilities, including missile factories and air defence systems.

The military capabilities of Iran’s so-called axis of resistance, including proxies and allies such as Lebanon’s Hizbollah and Gaza-based Hamas, have also been severely degraded after 15 months of conflict with Israel. Islamist rebels in Syria last month also overthrew the regime of former president Bashar al-Assad, another Tehran ally.

Trump said on Monday that he expected Saudi Arabia to eventually normalise ties with Israel and join the Abraham Accords, an initiative agreed during his first term that normalised relations between Israel and several Arab states including the United Arab Emirates.

Pastacorp, l’entreprise familiale qui produit les pâtes sèches de la célèbre marque, cherche à faire entrer un actionnaire minoritaire.

Le grand public n’a jamais entendu parler de la société Pastacorp. Et pourtant, elle et ses actionnaires, la famille Skalli, sont intimement liés à l’un des noms les plus fameux du patrimoine agroalimentaire français : Lustucru. L’entreprise fabrique et commercialise les pâtes sèches de la marque, quand les pâtes fraiches sont aujourd’hui produites par le groupe alimentaire espagnol Ebro Foods… Un drôle de schéma hérité du passé - nous y reviendrons. Aujourd’hui, Pastacorp conserve une taille plutôt intermédiaire : en 2023, la société faisait état de 149 millions de chiffre d’affaires pour un Ebitda de 12 millions d’euros. Mais son patron, Antony Cohen Skalli, le quadragénaire aux commandes de l’affaire familiale, planche sur une opération qui pourrait lui donner les moyens de changer de dimension, a appris l’Informé.

Selon plusieurs sources, Pastacorp a effectivement mandaté en fin d’année dernière la banque Rothschild & Co pour la conseiller dans une recomposition de son capital. Plusieurs actionnaires familiaux à l’âge avancé sont donnés sortants, et Antony Cohen Skalli entend profiter de cette opportunité pour renforcer sa participation. Pour ce faire, il lui faudra trouver un allié extérieur, d’où sa volonté d’attirer un acteur financier à ses côtés comme actionnaire minoritaire.

S’il parvient à boucler son opération, l’entrepreneur essaiera-t-il de renouer avec les gros coups qu’il a tentés ces dernières années ? Fin 2023, comme l’avait révélé l’Informé, PastaCorp n’avait pas hésité à partir à l’assaut d’un peu plus gros qu’elle, en ciblant une autre marque bien connue des consommateurs français, Tipiak, mise en vente par ses actionnaires familiaux. L’industriel avait monté une offre en compagnie de plusieurs acteurs financiers, en l’occurrence Bpifrance, Idia (société d’investissement de la galaxie Crédit Agricole) et Unigrains (le bras armé financier de la filière céréalière française). Mais c’est finalement la coopérative Terrena qui avait emporté le morceau.

En 2021, Pastacorp avait aussi tenté de pousser ses pions dans le rachat de Panzani auprès de l’espagnol Ebro Foods. Elle n’avait pas hésité à se rapprocher du fonds CVC Capital Partners pour faire ticket commun. Mais l’initiative est restée sans lendemain pour Pastacorp car le financier avait finalement bouclé seul l’acquisition, officiellement parce que le vendeur était réticent à voir émerger un géant français des pâtes mais aussi, dit-on, pour éviter de potentiels mouvements sociaux liés au rapprochement.

Pastacorp avait déjà eu l’occasion de croiser sur son chemin Panzani. Ce dernier avait failli absorber l’affaire familiale des Skalli en 2002… Mais là aussi pour des raisons liées à l’antitrust, l’actionnaire de Panzani, PAI Partners, avait dû se contenter de racheter la seule activité pâtes fraîches de Lustucru. Le fonds avait ensuite revendu son actif en 2006 à Ebro Food. Les Skalli, eux, avaient conservé les pâtes sèches de Lustucru, mais aussi celles commercialisées sous les marques Rivoire et Carret. Depuis, Pastacorp a discrètement fait son retour au rayon des pâtes fraîches, en reprenant à la barre du tribunal de commerce l’activité que possédait sur ce segment Financière Turenne Lafayette, l’ex-empire de Monique Piffaut (William Saurin, Garbit…) en pleine déconfiture. Ce deal lui permet d’être un fournisseur important de marques de distributeurs sur ce marché. Pastacorp reste également présent dans un autre domaine, la semoule, le métier d’origine des Skalli.

Rachel Reeves to soften UK non-dom tax reforms

Chancellor tells Davos crowd that government had been ‘listening to concerns’

Rachel Reeves is set to make a change to the UK government’s crackdown on non-domiciled residents in an attempt to allay concerns about the tax reforms announced in October’s Budget. 

The chancellor told a fringe event at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday that the government would soon table an amendment to its own finance bill. 

This will enable easier access to the temporary repatriation facility, which allows non-doms to bring foreign income and gains made before April 2025 into the UK and pay tax at a discounted rate of 12 per cent in the 2025-26 and 2026-27 tax years, rising to 15 per cent in 2027-28 — compared with the maximum income tax rate of 45 per cent. 

The change planned by the government would make it easier for certain funds to access the facility’s flat tax rates. But while the measure may be useful for some non-doms, it is unlikely to move the dial for many.

Reeves said at The Wall Street Journal’s Davos event on Thursday the government had been “listening to the concerns that have been raised by the non-dom community”, responding to a question about an increase in the net number of millionaires leaving the UK in recent months.

Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, later confirmed the planned change, first reported by The Times, telling journalists in the Swiss mountain resort: “There is a tweak to the finance bill . . . when you’re changing a tax regime, people will want to know, and there’ll be some uncertainty there, so we’ve got to get that message out.”

Reeves announced in the Budget that she was abolishing the non-dom regime, which allows UK tax residents whose permanent home or “domicile” is overseas to avoid paying British tax on their foreign income or capital gains for 15 years. 

It will be replaced from April 6 2025 by a four-year residence-based scheme to offer “internationally competitive arrangements for people coming to the UK on a temporary basis”.

Downing Street said the change would not lead to a fall in the tax take from replacing the non-dom regime, and the Treasury still expects to raise £33.8bn over the next five years from the reforms.  

Non-doms have been most concerned about changes to inheritance tax on existing trusts, with the issue often mentioned as the key factor driving them to leave the country.

Rachel de Souza, tax partner at RSM UK, said that while an increase to the temporary repatriation facility was “a good move” it is “woefully inadequate” to prevent wealthy non-doms from leaving the UK.

“The way to stem this exodus would be to maintain the exemption from IHT to offshore trusts but also reverse the proposed changes to agricultural and business property relief which impacts the farmers and entrepreneurs.”

Robert Brodrick, a partner at law firm Payne Hicks Beach, said: “It’s reassuring to see that they are at last responding to the concerns of the many people who are affected by this, but I don’t think this is going to be enough to stem the tide . . . It’s helpful but the inheritance tax exposure is the biggest nail in the coffin.”

The chancellor also said on Thursday she wanted to allay concerns from countries including India that the rules changes would not affect double-taxation agreements: “That’s not the case: we are not going to be changing those double-taxation conventions.”

A Treasury figure said: “We’re always interested in hearing ideas for making our tax regime more attractive to talented entrepreneurs and business leaders from around the world to help create jobs and wealth in the UK.”

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