Hugging Face has debuted an AI tool for navigating the web on your behalf
The Open Computer Agent uses a real web browser to complete tasks like getting directions or booking tickets
The agent and its open-source demo can see what’s on screen, click buttons, fill out forms, and move step-by-step through tasks like a human
Hugging Face has introduced its own take on the growing number of semi-independent AI agents that can run online errands for people. The new and free (if limited) Open Computer Agent is like having a personal assistant living inside your web browser.
Part of the company’s ongoing “smolagents” initiative, the Open Computer Agent can engage with websites and apps like you would, handling an invisible mouse and keyboard to complete requests. The AI can open a browser, type things into forms, click buttons, and more. Ask it to find directions, and it’ll go to Google Maps, enter the origin and destination, and show you the route like a dutiful digital chauffeur.
You can try it yourself with the live demo. Fair warning, its popularity is causing some delays and errors due to a backlog.
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Agent AI
The Open Computer Agent is a different philosophy of an idea that has led to similar tools like OpenAI’s Operator, Browser Use, Proxy 1.0, and Opera’s Browser Operator. Like those tools, Hugging Face’s AI agent is all about being an active participant instead of a passive source of information.
Like Browser Use, Open Computer Agent is open-source, meaning anyone can see how it works and build on top of it, or at least tweak it for niche use cases. The agent is the start of something more flexible, not a finished product with a million legal disclaimers. That also means the demo is exactly that, a demonstration, not a polished package. It can get things wrong and require you to jump in for logins and CAPTCHA tests.
Booking tickets, checking store hours, doing searches, looking up directions, and clicking through menus are all things a lot of people would like to be able to do with a single natural language prompt. It’s one thing to ask ChatGPT how to find cheap flights. It’s another to watch a tool go to a travel website, scroll through listings, and attempt to click “book now.”
It might be flawed and far from flashy, but Open Computer Agent represents an approach to AI that might become as common as the now ubiquitous AI image generators.
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