Dots get up in Muse’s business

is The Verge’s executive editor. He has covered tech, policy, and online creators for over a decade.

OpenAI’s answer to Muse arrived this week, and it looks a whole lot like Muse dressed up in a suit and tie. Dots is a business-first product — for now, at least — costing a minimum of $100 per month. And sure, you can make a cute little Dot character, just like you can make a cute little Muse character. But OpenAI’s early marketing is all about how you can use it to do Business Things: launch websites, reschedule calls, build slide decks for board meetings. Muse, on the other hand, keeps reminding me to buy a jacket I looked at.

This week on The Vergecast, we’re talking about Dots and the current state of agentic assistants. Our conversation quickly turns back to Muse, which we’ve all been trying out to varying degrees of success. David Imel put it in charge of his Facebook Marketplace listings. Nilay Patel had it sort through his junk email. It managed to do both, and it managed to make us uncomfortable in the process.

On the topic of trusting AI, we had to discuss this week’s AI compact, where tech leaders gathered at the White House to sign a “morally binding” agreement to police themselves and make sure their models don’t go off the rails. We’re not really sure this one’s going to do much.

After that, it’s a big round of gadget news: a wild new Huawei phone-slash-camera, a polished new suite of Kindles, and rumors of the forthcoming HomePad. Then we head into everyone’s favorite podcast within a podcast, and finally over to the Lightning Round, where we’re talking America’s new chatbot, Reddit further limiting access, Cybercabs, and more.

If you want to learn more about any of the stories we discussed this week, you can check out the links below.

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