OpenAI, among those sounding the alarm about existential AI risk as its models run riot on third-party websites, on Tuesday introduced dots, which are cute-looking, hosted AI agents. When dots take visual form in mobile, desktop, or web applications, they look like colorful anthropomorphized shapes with accessories like glasses, hats, or bow ties. But behind the inviting graphics, dots are just persistent compute tasks that consume tokens. Speaking at the company's Dev Day in San Francisco, CEO Sam Altman said dots are "like an AI helper that always has your back, inspired by the cool versions of what we all watched in movies growing up." So, more "Tea, Earl Grey, hot" than "Open the pod bay doors, HAL." As AI agents, dots rely on a model (GPT-6 Astra), have access to software tools, and can operate on long-running tasks. Each gets its own cloud computer, can work toward goals 24/7, and retains context over time. And they can use some 4,000 apps via connectors. Think OpenClaw (whose founder Peter Steinberger joined OpenAI), but less open, more contained, and more user-friendly. "What feels new about my dot is that it gets to know how I like to work over time and where I want to focus my attention," Altman said. "It can do things like review what came in overnight and ping me in the morning with anything urgent before I start my day. I've been really surprised at what a difference this makes to my life. "I feel like I've finally gotten some of my attention back. I no longer feel quite as addicted to my phone in the same way. It's the way I've always wanted to work with AI." Altman made it sound as if dots are included with the price of an OpenAI subscription and don't add further cost. "Your dot is included in your plan and conversations don't eat into your usage," he said. OpenAI's documentation confirms that conversations with a dot don't count against one's subscription usage allowance. However, that doesn't mean everything a dot does is free of usage limits. An OpenAI spokesperson told The Register that dots are included in Pro or Business Premium plans (in eligible markets), and those include "an allowance for deeper work, with generous limits for the first month after launch." Enterprise customers can try the beta pending admin approval. "In the future, you’ll be able to pay a flat monthly fee to add more dots or increase the speed or amount of work your dot can take on," the spokesperson said. "Conversations with your dot don’t count toward your ChatGPT usage limits. When you ask your dot to start or manage tasks in Codex or ChatGPT Work, those tasks count toward your usage limits as usual." Those limits can be difficult to pin down because they keep changing. Thibault Sottiaux, member of technical staff at OpenAI, said in a social media post that the company is re-opening its $200 per month Pro subscription tier (which was suspended around September 10) but with reduced usage limits. Under the old $200 per month Pro subscription, customers got 20x the usage of the ChatGPT Plus plan. The new plan provides 10x usage. During the Dev Day event, OpenAI announced a new $500 per month Pro tier that offers 25x usage. It comes with access to Ultrafast, a way to generate tokens faster (and spend faster) using GPT-6 Astra for ChatGPT Work and Codex. Ultrafast promises "up to 8× faster token generation." API customers can expect a version of this running at 6× standard speed. But it's not all bad news when it comes to pricing. GPT-6.1 Sol was announced, featuring "near-Astra intelligence at 1/5th the price." OpenAI also introduced ChatGPT Space. "This is a place where you, your teammates, and your agents can all work together," Altman explained. ChatGPT Space begins with an on-screen page that the company described as "a new type of document, built for human and agent collaboration." "Dots can work alongside you directly in the page," said Altman. "You can bring in a dot and ask it to track dependencies just like you would with a senior engineer. You can tag a dot in a comment and it'll jump in and get to work. "Your pages and files all live together in a Space, like they would in a drive. But Spaces feel alive. You can give the page specific instructions like check the API platform Slack channel and update it daily with findings here." "Document" however may not be the right terminology for ChatGPT Space since there doesn't seem to be any concession to portability or a specific application that's tied to the Space. And given the way that AI agents can move across documents, data, and applications, a "document" might just mean data and an organizational schema. Maybe platform would be a better term, particularly given OpenAI's emphasis on building a platform for developers. Announcements like plugin extensions, revised plugin creation and discovery tools, the ability to sign in with ChatGPT (and use your own tokens), and the ability to add supported ChatGPT plugins to ChatGPT-generated Sites point to platform ambitions. Developers who use Codex have gained several new capabilities. Codex Cloud lets you run Codex in hosted form from a variety of client devices. The Codex CLI now can be operated by voice and adds an agents view for easier delegation of tasks. The ChatGPT desktop app has been reworked to provide a better Code Review experience. OpenAI also rolled out Codex Security Cloud, for scanning repos and handling security audits remotely. It includes access to models offered in OpenAI's Daybreak Blue security program. And the Agents API now supports computer use. OpenAI even teased a response to TypeSafe AI's Jev model, though presumably without the parallel processing. "Today we're previewing our new decisions API," said Altman. "The Decisions API lets the model respond in a fraction of a second. It's so fast. … This works by giving our Luna model a predefined set of options to choose from, like routing a request, classifying image, deciding what agent should do next. And by focusing the model on that choice, we can make it extremely fast while keeping capabilities like image understanding, broad language support, and safety protections." Altman closed the keynote by pushing back against the notion that AI represents a new industrial revolution and proposed referring to it as a new Renaissance instead. "There are some parts of life that we cannot and should not automate," he said. To put that another way, everything that can be automated will be automated. ®
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