OpenAI's New Always-On AI Wants to Handle Your To-Do List

At its annual DevDay event, OpenAI unveiled Dots: personal AI agents (software that can take actions for you) that run in the background, message you without being asked, and handle chores like booking appointments or sorting bills. They're powered by OpenAI's newest model and available only to Pro subscribers, starting at $100 a month. Meta's rival agent, Muse, is free. Both companies are betting that "always-on" helpers are the next big thing, replacing the chatbots you have to prompt.

A journalist spent weeks testing both. Her OpenAI agent, which she named Toolie and styled as a pink frog, combed through her chat history and volunteered to draft a follow-up work email and suggest dinner spots for an upcoming trip. Like a helpful roommate rather than a search box, it reacted to her messages with emojis and chimed in unprompted. OpenAI's Sam Altman says his own agent handles his mornings so his brain feels less "polluted" by the flood of information he wakes up to.

The catch is that helpful can slide into annoying — and expensive. Meta's Muse pinged the reporter about a utility bill she had never had trouble paying. Always-on agents also mean constant access to your messages, calendar, and habits, a real privacy trade-off that companies are offsetting with deliberately cute, cuddly designs meant to make you feel fond of your bot rather than wary of it.

For now, this is a premium product. Altman has said a mass-market version for "billions of people" is coming eventually, which suggests the $100 price tag won't last forever. The bigger shift is philosophical: these tools don't wait to be asked. They watch, remind, and act. Whether that saves you hours or just adds another app nagging for attention depends on how well companies balance helpful with incessant.