Author: Uri Gal, Professor in Business Information Systems, University of Sydney

Over the past two years, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has captivated public attention. This year signals the beginning of a new phase: the rise of AI agents. AI agents are autonomous systems that can make decisions and take actions on our behalf without direct human input. The vision is that these agents will redefine work and daily life by handling complex tasks for us. They could negotiate contracts, manage our finances, or book our travel. Salesforce chief executive Marc Benioff has said he aims to deploy a billion AI agents within a year. Meanwhile Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg predicts AI…

Last month, OpenAI came out against a yet-to-be enacted Californian law that aims to set basic safety standards for developers of large artificial intelligence (AI) models. This was a change of posture for the company, whose chief executive Sam Altman has previously spoken in support of AI regulation. The former nonprofit organisation, which shot to prominence in 2022 with the release of ChatGPT, is now valued at up to US$150 billion. It remains at the forefront of AI development, with the release last week of a new “reasoning” model designed to tackle more complex tasks. The company has made several…