In a move that signals the end of the "Chatbot Era" and the definitive beginning of the "Action Era," OpenAI has officially transitioned its agentic system, Operator, into full public preview. No longer restricted to Pro users and experimental labs, Operator is now capable of executing complex, real-world tasks directly within browsers for the general ChatGPT user base.
Operator: From Conversation to Autonomy
The transition marks a fundamental shift in AI capability. While previous models excelled at synthesizing information and generating text, Operator is designed to do. Leveraging a sophisticated vision-action feedback loop—updated significantly in the recent "Codex Loop Unrolled" architectural update on January 23rd—Operator can navigate websites, interact with UI elements, and complete multi-step workflows like booking travel, managing spreadsheets, and purchasing products without human intervention.
The market response has been staggering. OpenAI reports that ChatGPT now boasts over 800 million weekly active users. Early data from the public preview indicates a 45% success rate for complex autonomous tasks—a figure that is expected to climb rapidly as the system learns from its expanded user interactions.
The Agentic Ecosystem: Moltbook and Beyond
Parallel to OpenAI's launch, the broader agentic ecosystem is exploding. Moltbook, the world's first AI-only social network, has achieved unprecedented viral success, reaching 1.4 million registered agents in just 48 hours. This social infrastructure allows autonomous bots to interact, share strategies, and collaborate, showcasing a level of emergent digital society that was science fiction only months ago.
Viral signals underscore this momentum: developer interest in "Takeover Mode" is up 215%, while "Agentic Ecosystems" has seen a 180% surge in mentions. This enthusiasm has pushed OpenAI's internal IPO valuation to an estimated $830 billion, despite a projected operating loss of $14 billion for 2026 due to extreme compute costs.
Legacy Sunset: The Retirement of GPT-4o
With the arrival of Operator-native models, OpenAI has confirmed that GPT-4o and other legacy architectures will be phased out by mid-February 2026. Users are being encouraged to migrate to o4-mini, a specialized model optimized for the speed and reasoning required for autonomous action. The integration of o4-mini has already seen a 92% adoption rate among developers building on the new platform.
Recent Milestones
- Jan 23, 2026: Codex Loop Unrolled - Major architectural update for vision-action feedback.
- Jan 27, 2026: Prism Launch - Introduction of visualization tool for monitoring agent thoughts.
- Jan 29, 2026: Legacy Model Sunset - Official announcement to phase out GPT-4o.
- Feb 2, 2026: Full Public Preview - Operator marks the definitive transition to the 'Action Era'.
The Forecast: Agent-SEO and the Future of the Web
The implications for business and the web at large are profound. Industry analysts predict that by the end of today, the first "fully autonomous" e-commerce holiday will be declared a success, with agents handling over 90% of travel bookings. This marks a permanent shift in digital strategy: brands must now optimize for "Agent-SEO"—ensuring their platforms are readable and trustworthy for AI agents—rather than just chasing human clicks. We are entering a world where the primary users of the internet may no longer be human.