OpenAI presented Dots, its new "always-on" artificial intelligence agents, on Tuesday. The company announced them during its DevDay 2026 conference, held in San Francisco, as the new AI assistant with which you can delegate tasks and entire projects while people do other things (The New York Times).

Dots are autonomous agents powered by GPT-6 Astra, the firm's most recent model, and operate on their own computer in the cloud with their own browser. Unlike ChatGPT, which needs the user to ask for something to answer, a Dot works continuously in the background, pursuing defined goals with minimal supervision (TechCrunch).

Sam Altman himself, CEO of OpenAI, summed up the proposal: "It's the way I've always wanted to work with AI." The executive pointed out that a Dot can learn the preferences of the person with whom he collaborates and said that, in the future, "you will be able to work with a team of Dots" acting on your behalf (PCMag).

In its official announcement, OpenAI explained that Dots learn from feedback over time: "The more you work together, the more your Dot learns your preferences, how you think, and what good looks like for you." Each agent has its own cloud, browser, and the apps that the user connects, with access to more than 4,000 applications through its ecosystem of plugins, and can be inspected at any time to review their work (The Verge, The Next Web).

The launch comes in the midst of a war for persistent AI assistants: Dots is positioned against Meta's Muse and Instinct, the competing alternatives. Available from Tuesday for ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium subscribers in eligible markets, each user receives a Dot for the time being, although the company plans to expand that number over time and is already showing a preview of specialized Dots for companies (Business Insider).

Security has been a central part of the announcement. OpenAI recognized that this type of agent must protect itself against harmful behavior: the Dots include safeguards and a monitoring system capable of pausing their work in case of risk detection. The context is not minor: last week the company decided not to launch its GPT-6.1 Astra model due to security concerns, so Dots relies on the previous unmodified version (BBC and The New York Times).

Dots' presentation came accompanied by other announcements at DevDay, including the opening of a new $500 per month plan and growth data: OpenAI claimed to have 1.2 billion weekly users, as reported by CNBC (CNBC, Bloomberg).

Source: OpenAI (official announcement).

Sources: OpenAI (official announcement) · TechCrunch · The New York Times · CNBC · BBC News · PCMag · The Next Web · Business Insider · Bloomberg. Image credit: OpenAI.