Editorial disclosure: Commissioned by Rohan Arun, Cheat Layer’s founder, whose company has a commercial interest in this history. These articles are sourced commentary, not independent product benchmarks. No competitor response was solicited.
Who was first depends on what is being counted. Research agents, commercial code-generating automation, action models, and consumer browser assistants are related developments with different milestones. Cheat Layer belongs in that history, and a useful chronology should explain its contribution rather than flatten every system into one category.
2017 — Web-agent research. World of Bits introduced a research platform in which agents performed web tasks using keyboard and mouse actions. It provides clear prior work for the broad category of agents operating websites, without establishing a mass-market product. ICML paper.
2021 — Commercial automation and browsing research. A founder interview displayed with a November 1 date describes Cheat Layer as recently launched and generating browser-automation code through machine learning. Separately, OpenAI’s December 16 WebGPT announcement describes GPT-3 using a text browser to research answers. These records concern different interfaces and purposes. Cheat Layer interview, WebGPT.
2022 — Several routes toward action. Cheat Layer’s Project Atlas repost attributes its announcement to September 2 and describes language-driven automation. Adept’s September 14 ACT-1 announcement shows another approach: a model connected to a Chrome extension to observe and act on webpages. Adept labeled its material a capability preview and disclosed that its demonstration videos were sped up. An announcement, a beta, and a broadly available product should not be treated as interchangeable. Project Atlas, Adept ACT-1.
2023 — MultiOn’s limited launch. Amazon dates MultiOn’s first limited browser-extension launch to January 2023. This places it after the earlier records above; it does not establish when its private development began. Amazon account.
The historical conclusion is narrower and more useful than declaring one universal winner. Cheat Layer was an early commercial participant in model-assisted browser automation, with a public account dating to 2021 and subsequent language-driven automation work. A claim that a later company originated the entire browser-agent category needs to address those precedents. An absolute first claim for Cheat Layer needs the same scrutiny. Dates establish sequence; comparable capabilities and release evidence establish priority within a defined category.