As Agentic AI Sweeps Market, OpenAI Seeks Patent For Easy Model Builder

The concept of autonomous agents has swept the enterprise AI market, and OpenAI may be trying to lock down some IP while development is still in early stages. 

The company is seeking to patent a system for “generative customized AI models” that includes building, evaluating and deploying task-specific AI agents that users can customize. 

Users who want the system to build a custom agent would submit a query with specifications, including a “knowledge base” – such as relevant documents or data – and any capabilities they want. 

OpenAI’s tech would then use the information to fine-tune a “base model” and generate a custom interface in which a user can interact with it. Before deployment, OpenAI’s system evaluates the agent to ensure it complies with content policies and security standards, and blocks deployment if any red flags appear. 

The goal is “to make the model faster, more efficient, and use less computational resources than a standard or generic model,” OpenAI said in the filing. 

As it stands, OpenAI’s patent history is rather sparse, especially in comparison with competitors such as Google, Microsoft or Amazon in the heated AI race. This patent application in particular could signal that the company is paying close attention to the emergence of agentic AI – and its flaws. 

Giving AI more autonomy, which can streamline workflows and cut down on busywork, also opens your enterprise up to more security, governance and accuracy risks. By running evaluations on these models before their deployment, OpenAI’s system could mitigate some of the risks. Plus, allowing users to build agents in a seamless way might lower barriers to adoption for less technically inclined enterprises.