Key Takeaways OpenAI's new Operator AI agent could have huge implications for Google Search, gig economy companies like Uber, and digital advertisers, according to analysts.Operator, released Thursday to users of OpenAI's $200 monthly Pro plan,

The AI contender to the apparent market leader finished a $2 million funding round and now has a $60 billion valuation.

OpenAI is putting its focus on AI infrastructure with Stargate at a time when rivals like China's DeepSeek are closing the gap on its AI models.

The AI assistant will first be made available to subscribers of ChatGPT Pro, a $200 a month subscription, and eventually roll out into the free version of ChatGPT.

On Thursday, OpenAI released a research preview of " Operator ," a web automation tool that uses a new AI model called Computer-Using Agent (CUA) to control computers through a visual interface. The system performs tasks by viewing and interacting with on-screen elements like buttons and text fields similar to how a human would.

To accompany the improvements of the recently announced o3 model, the o3-mini will be made available to free users with a range of useful improvements.

Stargate, the project to build AI-focused data centers in the US, will reportedly get $19 billion from OpenAI and SoftBank.

Google challenges OpenAI with free Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking model, offering million-token processing, native code execution, and breakthrough performance in math and science benchmarks.

Meta Platforms plans to invest $60-$65 billion in 2025 to enhance its AI infrastructure, aiming to compete with OpenAI and Google. CEO Mark Zuckerberg envisions their AI, Llama 4, becoming the industry benchmark and expects it to serve over 1 billion users by 2025.

WIth one foot out the White House door, the Biden administration issued 2 documents Musk is now using in his battle to break up OpenAI and Microsoft.

In a video, an OpenAI employee demonstrates the tool by making it fetch a pasta recipe from the Allrecipes website and order the necessary ingredients through Instacart. Another video shows how the tool can be used to plan trips using Priceline. Operator can also tap into services like DoorDash, OpenTable, StubHub, Thumbtack, and Uber.