Allie K. Miller

OpenAI launched Dots at DevDay. My thoughts. First, the good. Always-on is really really really what the market needed. It's why I find myself reaching for Instinct so often. I don’t have to think about WiFi or my computer being open or Mac mini being on. Second, every Dot gets its own dedicated VM. Clearly a big compute commit, and it's the same directional bet Meta made with Muse. Will gladly take a persistent dedicated environment over a just-in-time spin-up (persistence is what makes an agent feel more like a teammate). Which unlocks the overarching use case: AI as an ambient watchdog. "Watch my Slacks and tell me to step in if two teams are duplicating work" or "watch my spend and apply for a better credit card” or “keep an eye on my calendar and handle all gift ordering” or “watch my Apple Watch and manage all my gym class bookings”. Dots give AI *ongoing responsibilities* 🔍 Underneath it all, the architecture feels like it’s settling on a direction too. A tax exec recently asked me about governance, and between smaller models and the Decisions API, what's winning right now feels like a big brain managing a thousand tiny ones (versus just one big brain). Also - anyone else notice the whole Dots product video was dictation? And in fact, not a single computer screen was shown? Some phones, tablets, TV monitors, and the back of one laptop. In my mind, this is a device-agnostic pitch. Maybe Dots are the brain or the working paradigm for the Ive device. Also, typing is dead. Multitasking - hypertasking, really - still feels unsolved, even if that’s a future state for Dots. A proactive agent means YOU'RE the one context-switching now, and I don't think we've cracked that UI. I hate chat threads as the main option. It's why so many dev superusers create their own work interface. Designers, what a great opportunity for you! The name... I’m sure they argued over names nonstop. "Dots" sells the swarm, but it makes it sound like you have to direct-manage a whole fleet of helpers. Although OpenAI is only giving users one primary Dot atm, the “team of dots” is promised for the future. Product name also sounds 10% too cute for the workplace but it’s also a response to how dev-oriented “Codex” felt. It’s a bit buggy right now, the early reviewers are right. But expect that to change over the next few weeks - this was an intentional early announce to pull attention back off of Muse, GrokBot, and Instinct. Smart imo. Always-on, watching, acting before you ask. The word of the year continues to be: PROACTIVE.