PCWorld reports that AI is evolving beyond simple chatbots to become autonomous agents that directly control PC functions and applications. Major tech companies are developing agentic AI systems, including Anthropic's Claude tools, OpenAI's upcoming superapp, and Google's Gemini Mac app with desktop intelligence features. This shift toward AI agents managing tasks like software development and data analysis represents a fundamental change in how users will interact with their computers. Remember when ChatGPT was just an AI chatbox that sat on your desktop? That was, like, so December.

OpenAI is developing a unified desktop superapp that will integrate ChatGPT, Codex, and Atlas into a single application, according to PCWorld's coverage of The Wall Street Journal report. This consolidation aims to reduce service fragmentation and improve overall quality for users accessing OpenAI's various AI tools. The superapp represents a significant shift toward streamlined AI services, potentially making OpenAI's offerings more accessible and efficient for desktop users. It seems you'll soon be able to access most of OpenAI's services in one place on your computer.

Tech companies believe in intellectual property, but not yours. In April 2024, Eric Schmidt, the former Google CEO and a current AI evangelist, gave a closed-door lecture to a group of Stanford students. If these young people hoped to be Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, Schmidt explained, then they should be prepared to breach some ethical boundaries. Yet Schmidt told the students to go ahead and download whatever they need to build an accurate "test" version of their AI product. If the product takes off, "then you hire a whole bunch of lawyers to go clean the mess up," he said.

At Palantir's Developer Conference, AI Is Built to Win Wars As business soars, Palantir is doubling down on a vision of AI built for battlefield advantage--and attracting customers who agree. The defense contractors, military officers, and corporate executives in attendance are unprepared for the weather; they'd assumed the previous day's mid-70s temperatures would hold. A cold rain turns to steady snowfall, and Palantir passes out heavy blankets. As people move between open-air pavilions, it looks like they were pulled from shipwrecks. To this self-selecting crowd, Palantir is delivering on its promises.

Plus: OpenAI is also creating a super app. OpenAI has a new grand challenge: building an AI researcher--a fully automated agent-based system capable of tackling large, complex problems by itself. The San Francisco firm said the new goal will be its "north star" for the next few years. By September, the company plans to build "an autonomous AI research intern" that can take on a small number of specific research problems. The intern will be the precursor to the fully automated multi-agent system, which is slated to debut in 2028. In an exclusive interview this week, OpenAI's chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, talked me through the plans.

OpenAI is refocusing its research efforts and throwing its resources into a new grand challenge. The San Francisco firm has set its sights on building what it calls an AI researcher, a fully automated agent-based system that will be able to go off and tackle large, complex problems by itself. OpenAI says that this new research goal will be its "North Star" for the next few years, pulling together multiple research strands, including work on reasoning models, agents, and interpretability .

The company is reportedly making a unified app to streamline the user experience. OpenAI is developing a "super app" for desktop that unifies ChatGPT, its browser and its Codex app, according to the and . A company spokesperson told the publications that OpenAI Chief of Applications Fidji Simo will lead the application revamp with assistance from OpenAI President Greg Brockman. Simo will also help the marketing team advertise the app when it comes out. OpenAI's leadership is apparently hoping that combining several products can help it streamline user experience and dedicate its resources to one project.

The app reads your email inbox and your meeting calendar, then gives you a short audio summary. It can help you spend less time scrolling, but of course, there are privacy drawbacks to consider.

The Fight to Hold AI Companies Accountable for Children's Deaths After a series of suicides allegedly linked to AI chatbots, one lawyer is trying to hold companies like OpenAI accountable. Cedric Lacey relied on a camera to check on his kids while he was working as a commercial van driver going to and back from Alabama. Each morning, he would tune into the feed of his living room to make sure his teenage son, Amaurie, and his 14-year-old daughter were packing up their bags and getting ready to leave for school. But one morning last June, Lacey didn't see Amaurie up and about. Concerned, he called home, only to find out that his 17-year-old had hanged himself.

As Silicon Valley obsesses over a new wave of AI coding agents, Google and other AI labs are shifting their bets. Google is shaking up the team behind Project Mariner, its AI agent that can navigate the Chrome browser and complete tasks on a user's behalf, WIRED has learned. In recent months, some Google Labs staffers who worked on the research prototype have moved on to higher-priority projects, according to two people familiar with the matter. A Google spokesperson confirmed the changes, but said the computer use capabilities developed under Project Mariner will be incorporated into the company's agent strategy moving forward. Google has already folded some of these capabilities into other agent products, including the recently launched Gemini Agent, the spokesperson added.