OpenAI’s Dot agent is enterprise software that can also order your dinner

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It’s a tale as old as last week: OpenAI’s new agent platform, called Dots, is full of cute little guys who can do your bidding.

But unlike the ultra-approachable Meta Muse, Dots feel very much like using workplace software that happens to be able to order you a burrito — emphasis on work.

OpenAI announced Dots earlier this week. Like Muse, Dots have blobby, anthropomorphic avatars and customizable names. In the future, OpenAI says you’ll be able to have multiple Dots, but right now you get one. I named mine Dotty McDotface.

The interface looks similar to Muse’s; you chat with the agent in one window and follow its work in another as it clicks around on a virtual machine. But Dots are less personal shoppers, even though they can help you buy stuff. They’re more like coworkers: business software that can use other software.

Your Dot’s virtual machine can access apps like Blender and GIMP right off the bat. You can also give it access to your own computer through the desktop ChatGPT app, and you can call your Dot if you need to work through things out loud. And OpenAI is offering Dots first to users on its highest-tier accounts, including the $100-per-month Pro account I expensed to test it.

Muse and its buzzy competitor Instinct cost you nothing — at least now, and at least until Meta can get it off the ground and presumably start using it to serve you ads, etc. But OpenAI’s gated rollout says a lot about who the product is for, cute avatars notwithstanding.

I’ve been testing other AI agents with day-to-day personal tasks — yielding mixed results — and I was curious how OpenAI’s bot would compare. Despite its more enterprise-y vibes, OpenAI says Dots “can do nearly anything” with its cloud computer and access to apps, so I gave it a shot with some more pedestrian use cases.

To start, I had Dot try to schedule an installation appointment for a new internet service provider at my house (you hear that, Comcast? You’re on notice). It almost got there, and even found a $100 promotional discount in my email that I had mass deleted, but got stuck at a “human check.” Which is problematic for a bot. “This particular check needs a sustained mouse hold that my browser controls don’t support,” it said. “Please open my browser here and hold ‘Press & Hold’ until it completes, then tell me and I’ll continue with installation dates.” I obliged, but it felt a little bit like