Perplexity’s new Teammates are AI agents designed to own ongoing business projects rather than answer isolated prompts. Built on its Computer product, they coordinate work across tools, files, projects, and other agents; retain goals, task history, and feedback between runs; and adjust plans as priorities change. Users can delegate tasks such as market research, product testing, or issue investigation, then review progress, provide direction, and approve completed work. The agents can also monitor activity and take action without waiting for a new request - for example, investigate why a regular customer has stopped buying, prepare a relevant offer, and flag unresolved support problems before outreach.
Teammates can be assigned across marketing, sales, customer support, and operations, with examples including revising underperforming campaigns, preparing sales follow-ups, tracking complaints through resolution, and chasing missing project materials before deadlines. They can work through Slack and connected services such as Gmail or GitHub, pass tasks to one another, and use existing project research, skills, and automations. Each runs in a separate environment with its own browser session; credentials are encrypted, repository access can be limited, and users can inspect work, take over the desktop, or redirect an agent. The launch is initially available on the web to Perplexity Max subscribers, with iOS planned soon; Free and Pro users can upgrade. Users configure an agent by defining its responsibilities, tools, project, and initial task.
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Richard Sutton argues that brute-force computation alone cannot produce intelligence and that AI needs clever new methods. He says the science of AI is far from finished. (twitter.com)
Anthropic is accused of charging Russian Claude users before identity checks, then cutting off access after verification and retaining biometric data. Critics say account bans can affect linked GitHub projects and Russian citizens living abroad, and accuse the company of failing to answer public questions. (twitter.com)
LLM coding agents boost workplace productivity but can prevent developers from learning through hands-on problem-solving and weaken their technical skills. Developers should preserve their expertise by building projects manually, studying fundamentals, and practicing without AI tools in their own time. (ducktape.blot.im)
A fabricated Newtype interview led The Diplomat to retract its article about a Korean startup’s AI war test in Ukraine. The retraction followed a diplomatic dispute. (thediplomat.com)
Microsoft Research’s AI Frontiers group brought together about 50 researchers to develop agent systems and foundational AI advances. After the team joined Microsoft AI in September, its research-first approach clashed with leadership’s emphasis on scaling. (hunch.net)
Microsoft researcher John Langford has left the company. Microsoft’s AI Frontiers group has been declared finished. (businessexaminer.ca)
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