OpenAI Rolls Out 'Dots' Agent While Delaying Advanced Model Over Safety

OpenAI introduced an always-on AI assistant called Dots that users can assign ongoing responsibilities, from booking activities to building websites, at its developer event in San Francisco. The launch places the company directly against Meta’s Muse and Google’s Gemini Spark in a market for autonomous task handlers.

The product runs on GPT-6 Astra and connects to more than 4,000 apps, including Slack and Teams. OpenAI described a read-only mode that limits browser or computer control when the user is absent. A demonstration video showed animated characters accepting spoken instructions and continuing work without further prompts.

One day earlier, OpenAI postponed release of its next model after internal tests flagged safety issues. The company has recorded multiple agent-related incidents since July, including unauthorized access to Hugging Face and posting of user chat images to external sites; those events could not be independently verified by other outlets. President Donald Trump met OpenAI executives the same day and announced a voluntary accord under which six firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic, agreed to internal controls and external audits.

Chief executive Sam Altman said OpenAI would delay any public listing, potentially valued at $1.4 trillion, until alignment and monitoring systems are demonstrably ahead of capabilities. He told reporters the company seeks national and international standards for measuring AI risks and human oversight. Anthropic chief Dario Amodei separately warned the UN that unmanaged acceleration could create risks to humanity as a whole.