Hey there, 

OpenAI held its annual developer day this week and we got a ton of information to unpack. The company said that this was their biggest DevDay to date with over 20 announcements. As the name suggests, this event was targeted at developers using ChatGPT products but most of it also impacts everyday users. The biggest headlines that we’ll look at were: a new agent that’s constantly active and a new flagship model. This week we’ll cover all the important announcements that impact how and when you use ChatGPT. 

What dots are and how they work

Dots are new personal agents that complete work for you. They can run 24/7 on their own cloud computer and browser which means that you can access your dots from multiple devices or even start a task on your computer and then give feedback through your mobile device. You always have the ability to see what your dot is doing on its cloud computer to help monitor specific tasks. This new agent is powered by GPT-6 Astra and can access over 4,000 unique apps. Its computer use capabilities mean it can finish tasks on its own. You can communicate with dots through tools like Slack and Teams and OpenAI said that texting will be coming soon. 

A core feature of dots is that you control what it can access and what tasks it's allowed to complete on its own. By default, certain tasks will require approval like sending messages so there can still be a human layer wherever you want one. One example OpenAI shared had a developer’s dot tracking customer feedback, implementing changes, and then giving the developer complete PRs. Dots are rolling out to Pro, Business Premium, Enterprise, and Edu plans. 

The other big announcements

DevDay gave us quite a few other big announcements so let’s cover some of them here.

• GPT-6.1 Sol: This is a new, upgraded Sol model that performs better on agentic coding, computer use, and professional work like “understanding documents and executing multi-step business workflows”. This model only costs one-fifth as much as Astra while having comparable performance. 

• ChatGPT Space: This is a new feature that lets you store files, projects, and Pages you’ve created in ChatGPT in a single shared workspace. You can grant access to team members and dots. ChatGPT Pages are a new type of interactive document created by ChatGPT that can be worked on collaboratively. 

• Collaborative Slides: These are ChatGPT-created presentations that can be exported to PowerPoint and Google Slides. This feature will be coming in the next few weeks. 

• Pro 500 Plan: OpenAI announced a new $500 a month plan that has 25x the base ChatGPT Plus quota. This plan also includes Ultrafast, a new faster speed setting for ChatGPT and Codex. 

• The Meetings plugin: You can now have ChatGPT take notes and create summaries based on your meetings. It's able to create action items with ChatGPT Space to ensure you don’t miss anything. 

• Sign in with ChatGPT: Log into select partner apps with your ChatGPT account for more convenient access. Plus and Pro users can also use their ChatGPT plan to power the AI features that are built into apps like Vercel, Notion, and 14 other partnered apps. 

• Shareable Profiles: This new page will show all the Sites and plugins that you’ve created. This is a great way to showcase any interesting Sites you made. While this is off by default, it's available to all users, paid and free. 

My Thoughts

The most interesting announcement for me was dots. Having a new agent that's powered by Astra means it's able to complete all kinds of real, useful tasks through computer use. But instead of having to constantly monitor and prompt it, you can let it run and finish tasks that would otherwise keep you busy. These powerful agents are becoming increasingly popular in the AI space and I think that dots clearly show why. Aside from this, the new Sol model is again showcasing the trends in AI. We are seeing much more cost-effective models from all the AI labs which makes sense. Having powerful tools is great, but having a powerful tool that can actually keep up with your day-to-day work is a gamechanger. When comparing this DevDay to previous years and other shows like Google I/O, I’d say that this was another excellent event.