AI agents move from assistance to action

Anthropic launched Claude Duet, a proactive work assistant that can monitor connected business applications and complete administrative tasks in the background. The preview requires human approval before consequential actions and is available through a waitlist for US Pro and Max subscribers.

Walmart announced a developer beta for third-party AI shopping agents through a new Agent Gateway that lets outside assistants shop at Walmart and Sam’s Club. Planned Agent Profiles will let users establish spending limits and require manual approvals while keeping purchases made by bots separate from customers’ own shopping activity.

Perplexity Computer now supports fully local AI workflows on compatible Apple silicon Macs. Pro, Max, and Enterprise subscribers can perform planning, reasoning, and task execution on their devices, with Perplexity recommending at least 36GB of memory. Users may also authorize cloud assistance when they want additional resources.

The growing influence of generative systems is also raising questions about human cognition. Early research into AI and false memories indicates that generated summaries and altered images can lead people to recall details they never witnessed. The material can also make people more confident in those inaccurate memories.