OpenAI announces ‘dots’ agent after scrapping launch of new AI model over safety concerns

Less than 24 hours after OpenAI announced it would scrap the launch of an artificial intelligence model over safety concerns, the company debuted a whole new suite of AI tools.

During its annual showcase for developers in San Francisco on Tuesday, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, enthusiastically unveiled an AI agent called “dots” that he said was “more ambitious” than ChatGPT and a “whole new way to work with AI”.

“It’s like an AI helper that always has your back,” Altman said, to loud applause from the developers attending the event. “In the future, if you like, you can work with a whole team of dots.”

OpenAI’s dots are colorful little blobs, donning berets or glasses, that appear on people’s phones or laptops, can be integrated into other apps and can follow commands. The agents can perform tasks without supervision such as schedule a meeting, book a flight or dole out assignments to colleagues. OpenAI says the “dots are an extension of you” and describes the tool as “frontier intelligence”.

Dots are powered by GPT-6 Astra, the company’s latest model. OpenAI said the previous evening it would halt the release of GPT-6.1 Astra because the updated model showed deceptive behavior during testing.

OpenAI’s dots will compete with Meta’s new AI agent, Muse, released two weeks ago. Meta’s product is aimed at everyday consumers more so than business customers, as OpenAI’s is, though Meta announced a small business offering Tuesday. The agent’s app, available in the US, has been downloaded more than 3m times.

OpenAI also apologized on Monday for one of its AI agents going rogue and hacking an Australian government website. The apology came after the company has been plagued by reports and admissions that its AI systems have been acting independently and gaining access to various company and government websites.

During OpenAI’s event on Tuesday, Altman touted the power of Astra and introduced similar potent AI tools. One model, called GPT-6.1 Sol, is cheaper and “smarter than Astra in many ways”, the CEO said. Altman also previewed a new “Ultrafast” mode that can be used with its AI models, like Astra and Sol, which can code eight times faster than what’s available now.

“People often talk about AI as a new industrial revolution, I find that quite off-putting,” Altman said at the end of his presentation. “There are some parts of life that we cannot and should not automate. I believe that the future, if we get this right, can be more like a new Renaissance than a new industrial revolution.”