The Battle to Be Your Personal AI Agent Is Here

Yesterday, I spent the morning at OpenAI’s annual DevDay, where over 2,500 nerds discussed building software and marveled at the latest artificial intelligence models. The biggest reveal of the day was Dots, the company’s new, always-on agents that proactively help complete tasks and make autonomous decisions as they scour the web.

After watching the sometimes messy demos on stage and hearing CEO Sam Altman talk about his experiences using the agents, I was curious what it felt like to boss my own Dot around. I’ve spent most of September testing another cute, cuddly agent, Meta’s Muse, and I wanted to know how OpenAI’s user experience would compare.

I named mine “Toolie” and tweaked it to look like a pink frog. As midnight approached and my partner slept soundly nearby, I started whispering sweet nothings to Toolie. I called my personalized bot through ChatGPT, asking what tasks it was best at. “My strongest work is taking a messy, time-consuming task and turning it into something you can use,” it responded. OK, sure. Let’s get to work.

I asked Toolie to look through my ChatGPT history and flag three tasks that it could immediately get started on. The bot flagged an in-process data request that I needed to send a follow-up email for, and offered to draft a reply. Toolie also noted that my upcoming gay-cation was a bit underplanned, and suggested it could pick some better dinner spots. (More time for me to pack the Speedos!) Then, it offered to go through my reporting notes and refine pitch drafts before I took them to editors. This is my favorite part of the process, so I declined.

For now, users will be able to access one Dot, but they’ll soon be able to use multiple Dots. At launch, the agents are only available for subscribers of OpenAI’s Pro plan, which starts at $100 per month. In comparison, Muse is free to use for anyone who wants to download the app or visit the website.

This is an edition of Will Knight’s AI Lab newsletter. Read previous newsletters here.