Google’s research agent surfaces more citations than OpenAIs Deep Research but lacks depth, producing work at an undergraduate level.
AI research agents like OpenAI’s Deep Research claim to approach human expertise, but do they truly understand the material or just simulate knowledge convincingly?
AI can now conduct in-depth research, cross-referencing high-quality sources faster than any human.
- “For the first time, an AI isn’t just summarizing research, it’s actively engaging with it at a level that actually approaches human scholarly work.”
- “The quality of citations also marks a genuine advance here. These aren’t the usual AI hallucinations or misquoted papers – they’re legitimate, high-quality academic sources.”
- “The Reasoners provide the intellectual horsepower, while the agentic systems provide the ability to act.”
However, Deep Research still struggles with paywalled content, limiting access to critical information.
- “The AI can only access what it can find and read in a few minutes, and paywalled articles remain out of reach.”
- “These experts and consultancies aren’t going away – if anything, their judgment becomes more crucial as they evolve from doing the work to orchestrating and validating the work of AI systems.”
Quotes from Ethan Mollick, One Useful Thing,
AI systems are approaching the performance of (entry level) white-collar employees, especially in non-core but relevant task like marketing or customer interaction for someone in a technical role.