The Information reported this month that Google was planning to launch a consumer-focused agent experience as early as this December — one capable of purchasing a product, booking a flight, and other such chores. That now seems unlikely — unless the experience in question is divorced from Project Astra.

Anthropic recently became one of the first companies with a large generative AI model able to control apps and web browsers on a PC. But, illustrating how challenging building AI agents can be, Anthropic’s struggles with many basic tasks.