AI wars: OpenAI strikes back with Deep Research amid China’s bold move
ChatGPT maker unveils Deep Research, an autonomous AI for complex tasks
The battle for AI supremacy just got even hotter.
In a dramatic turn of events, China’s DeepSeek sent shockwaves through the industry with its latest bombshell announcement — triggering an immediate counterstrike from US-based OpenAI.
Not one to be outdone, OpenAI has now unveiled Deep Research, an advanced AI agent designed to untangle complex problems, enhance reasoning, and streamline high-level research tasks like never before.
OpenAI doubles down
But that’s not all.
OpenAI is doubling down on AI automation with its new Operator agent, a digital assistant that doesn’t just crunch numbers and analyse data — it gets things done.
Need to book a last-minute flight? Order groceries? Buy concert tickets? Operator takes care of it all, navigating the web on your behalf like a hyper-intelligent personal concierge.
O3 model
The system runs autonomously on OpenAI’s upcoming O3 model, allowing it to search, interpret, and analyse vast amounts of text, images, and PDFs while adjusting its approach as it encounters new information, according to the company.
OpenAI has announced the launch of its next artificial intelligence (AI) tool “Deep Research”
The newly-introduced AI agent is designed to assist with conducting complex research and reasoning
It also solves time-consuming and expensive tasks.
Slower pace
Deep Research operates at a slower pace due to its intensive computing demands.
According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, while the system may take between 5 to 30 minutes to complete a task, it is the first AI capable of handling such a wide range of intricate and valuable research processes.
He stated:
“It is very compute-intensive and slow, but it’s the first AI system that can do such a wide variety of complex, valuable tasks. Going live in our Pro tier now, with 100 queries per month. Plus, Team, and Enterprise will come soon, and then Free tier.”
Shift toward autonomous AI
The launch of Deep Research follows a growing industry trend toward autonomous AI tools capable of performing multi-step tasks with little or no human supervision.
Competing companies, including Microsoft, Anthropic, and Google, have also developed similar AI research tools.
For instance, Google’s AI chatbot Gemini features its own Deep Research function – enabling users to gather and analyse online information efficiently.
Impact on academic work and everyday tasks
Sam Altman has previously described AI agents as the next major advancement in artificial intelligence.
One key area of impact is academic research.
Mushtaq Bilal, an academic writer with over 200,000 followers on X, suggested that AI tools like Deep Research could automate literature reviews, allowing scholars to focus on refining AI-generated results rather than manually conducting exhaustive research.
Who can access it
Currently, Deep Research is available to Pro-tier users with 100 queries per month, while the Plus tier will have access to 10 tasks per month.
OpenAI plans to roll out additional access for Team, Enterprise, and Free-tier users in the near future.
Higher stakes
With DeepSeek and OpenAI now in an all-out AI arms race, the stakes have never been higher.
Will OpenAI’s latest moves keep it ahead, or is the AI landscape about to shift in China’s favour? One thing’s for sure—this battle is just getting started.
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