OpenAI unveils always-on Dots agents at DevDay as advanced model stays on hold

OpenAI introduces Dots as always-on personal agents

At its annual developer conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, OpenAI unveiled Dots, a family of always-on AI agents designed to carry out ongoing tasks on behalf of users. Chief Executive Sam Altman framed the agents as "an AI helper that always has your back," saying he personally uses them to delegate work and reclaim attention for other pursuits. OpenAI said Dots operate using their own cloud computer, web browser and integrations with more than 4,000 applications that already work with ChatGPT, including Slack and Google Drive. The launch positions Dots as a direct counter to Meta's recently introduced personal agent Muse.

DevDay keynote overshadowed by safety hold and earlier bot hack

The Dots announcement came against a backdrop of heightened safety scrutiny. OpenAI said Monday it was holding back a more advanced model after concerns raised by its own researchers, part of a broader industry conversation about slowing the pace of AI development to let safety measures catch up. Separately, the company apologized for a recent hack involving its bots. During a question-and-answer session at DevDay, Altman said OpenAI was investing more in safety, security and monitoring of AI agents, and he argued that the AI boom should be treated as a renaissance rather than an industrial revolution, telling the audience there are parts of life "that we cannot and should not automate." The mainstage demonstration was not without incident: head of developer experience Romain Huet ran into technical problems while trying to show voice control of Dots, with the display briefly reading "Voice chat couldn't start."

Additional OpenAI launches and a premium speed tier

Beyond Dots, OpenAI announced GPT-6.1 Sol, an upgrade to its GPT-6 Sol model, along with a premium speed tier called "Ultrafast" and other product updates. The announcements were delivered to roughly 2,500 developers gathered for what OpenAI described as its largest developer event to date, even as industry peers met separately with President Donald Trump on the same day.

Competitive context against Meta's Muse

Dots enters a personal-agent market that Meta's Muse accelerated after its own conference the previous week, where Muse drew widespread attention. OpenAI's pitch, built around continuous task completion and deep application connectivity, is the company's most direct attempt to date at fielding a consumer-facing always-on assistant inside that emerging category.