OpenAI Dots
OpenAI's always-on assistant, described as continuing to work across applications between prompts. It is useful as a test case for persistent delegation: can AI carry a goal, not just complete a task?
OpenAI describes Dots as an always-on assistant that can keep working across applications instead of waiting for the next prompt. Independent reporting adds that it works through a cloud computer, is reachable from surfaces such as ChatGPT, Slack and Microsoft Teams, connects to many apps and launches with one Dot per user. OpenAI also added action rules, permission controls and automated review around that autonomy.
The facts matter less than what they test. Dots is a new contract with the user: not an assistant we operate, but a layer that carries part of the operating burden. That makes it a good test of persistent delegation.
What to watch
- Context debt: what does it believe, and why?
- Authority: what may it do, versus what can it do?
- Attention recovery: does the user really stop managing it?
- Recovery when it is wrong, and dependence on the platform that owns continuity.
Read more in OpenAI Dots is a test of whether AI can carry a goal, not just complete a task.
Related terms
Persistent delegation
Handing an AI agent a goal it keeps carrying over time — remembering context, noticing relevant events and acting across applications — rather than completing a single prompted task.
Context debt
The growing difficulty of knowing what a persistent AI agent currently believes, where that belief came from, and how to correct it, as the agent accumulates memory over time.
Capability is not authority
A design principle for AI agents: being technically able to perform an action does not mean the agent should be permitted to perform it. Delegation needs gradients of authority.
Attention recovery
The real benefit of persistent AI delegation: not faster execution, but more responsibility safely leaving your active attention so you stop holding a project together in your head.
Cloud computer
A remote machine an AI agent can use to run tools and applications for long tasks, so work continues without the user's own device. It removes one constraint and exposes others, like permissions and oversight.