new ai agent
The Download: Montana's experimental treatments, and Google DeepMind's new AI agent
The news: A bill that allows clinics to sell unproven treatments has been passed in Montana. Under the legislation, doctors can apply for a license to open an experimental treatment clinic and recommend and sell therapies not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to their patients. Why it matters: Once it's signed by the governor, the law will be the most expansive in the country in allowing access to drugs that have not been fully tested. The bill allows for any drug produced in the state to be sold in it, providing it has been through phase I clinical trials--but these trials do not determine if the drug is effective. The big picture: The bill was drafted and lobbied for by people interested in extending human lifespans.
Adobe's new AI agent can show you how to use Photoshop
You open the program after a long break to edit an image, but this being Photoshop we're talking about, there are about five different ways to complete the task before you and you can't quite remember the way you learned to do it. Adobe is trying to make it easier to use its flagship app with the introduction of a built-in AI agent that can navigate Photoshop and complete tasks for users. Users can access the tool from the redesigned Actions panel. If you've used an AI chat bot before, the interface will be familiar. There's a text box for users to input what they want the agent to do for them, with a list of suggested prompts above.
Honor's New AI Agent Can Read and Understand Your Screen
We must all hate booking a table at a restaurant because it's once again the problem tech companies are trying to solve with the power of artificial intelligence. Honor has taken the wraps off of Honor UI Agent--a "GUI-based mobile AI agent" that claims to handle tasks on your behalf by understanding the screen's graphical user interface. Its primary demo to show off this capability? WIRED had an early opportunity to see the demo ahead of the company's keynote at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, where Honor also announced its 10 billion Honor Alpha Plan. This long-term plan, envisioned by the Chinese company's new CEO Jian Li, is lofty and largely corporate-speak, comprised of goals like "creating an intelligent phone" and "open human potential boundaries and co-create a new paradigm for civilization."
The Download: Google's new AI agent, and our tech pessimism bias
What's happening: Google is set to launch a new system called Astra later this year. It promises that it will be the most powerful, advanced type of AI assistant it's ever launched. The current generation of AI assistants, such as ChatGPT, can retrieve information and offer answers, but that is about it. But this year, Google is rebranding its assistants as more advanced "agents," which it says could show reasoning, planning, and memory skills and are able to take multiple steps to execute tasks. The big picture: Tech companies are in the middle of a fierce competition over AI supremacy, and AI agents are the latest effort from Big Tech firms to show they are pushing the frontier of development.