Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn cofounder and prominent investor, has revealed that he uses OpenAI’s Deep Research tool daily to gain insight into the future of AI. In a recent interview on Bloomberg Television, Hoffman explained that the ‘chain-of-thought’ models employed by Deep Research offer valuable perspectives on how AI products could function as ‘workers in the future.’
Hoffman, who stepped down from OpenAI’s board in 2023 due to potential conflicts of interest with his other AI investments, emphasized that multiple companies are actively developing ‘strong’ agentic AI offerings. He noted that while OpenAI is a significant player, other major tech companies like Anthropic, Microsoft, and Google are also making substantial progress in this field.
The concept of agentic AI, which refers to AI systems capable of acting independently and making decisions without human intervention, has sparked intense debate about the potential replacement of human workers. Recent research by Carnegie Mellon University researchers tested AI agents in virtual simulations of real-world professional scenarios, finding that even top-performing models completed less than a quarter of all tasks.
Graham Neubig, a computer science professor at CMU involved in the research, previously stated that while AI agents may accelerate certain tasks, they are not yet ready to replace all human tasks. Hoffman, who has also co-founded Manas AI, echoed this sentiment by observing that there is currently no clear leader in the development of agentic AI.
The conversation around AI’s growing capabilities was further highlighted when Bloomberg interviewer Ed Ludlow mentioned his increasing use of voice mode with AI, noting that it requires a psychological adjustment for consumers to become comfortable with this interaction method.
