OpenAI Joins the “Deep Research” Trio
A quick look at three similar agents from Google, Genspark, and OpenAI.
TL;DR
OpenAI just released a “Deep Research” agent that can autonomously research and reason about complex topics. It’s the third “Deep Research” tool in less than two months, but it’s arguably the most capable.
What is it?
OpenAI describes it as “an agent that uses reasoning to synthesize large amounts of online information and complete multi-step research tasks.”
Basically, you ask Deep Research a question or give it a research task, and it sets off on its own to create a plan, read through relevant literature, explore different research avenues based on its findings, and seek additional information to produce the final report.
By early accounts it’s quite impressive, offering a “near PhD-level analysis” according to Ethan Mollick.
It’s also, confusingly, the third such agent with exactly the same name.
Here’s the timeline:
December 11, 2024: Google released a “Deep Research” assistant for paying Gemini Advanced users.
January 27, 2025: Genspark launched a “Deep Research” agent with similar…