OpenAI connects the dots on always-on agents
PLUS: Get started with ChatGPT dot, OpenAI's new agent
Good morning, AI enthusiasts, and welcome to the 5,480 new readers who joined us yesterday. The always-on AI agent category has gotten pretty crowded this summer. OpenAI is betting the only thing that matters is the best models powering them.
Dots, the company's new agents, just headlined a DevDay stuffed with 20+ launches, arriving in a space Grok Bot and Muse have already staked out — but with a model under the hood that neither rival can match (yet).
In today’s AI rundown:
OpenAI puts a 24/7 agent inside ChatGPT
Anthropic's doom-heavy IPO filing leaks
Get started with ChatGPT dot, OpenAI's new agent
The U.S. federal government gets an AI front door
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
OPENAI DEVDAY
Image source: OpenAI
The Rundown: OpenAI just introduced dots, always-on agents like Meta’s Muse that can keep working 24/7 from a cloud computer — leading a 20+ feature DevDay launch slate that also includes GPT-6.1 Sol, shared team workspaces, and an Ultrafast mode.
The details:
Each dot can plug into over 4,000 apps and reply in Slack, Teams, or ChatGPT, with conversations that don’t count against ChatGPT usage plans.
The agents run on GPT-6 Astra, with a user’s first dot included with Pro and Business Premium plans to start, and access expanding later on.
GPT-6.1 Sol costs a fifth of Astra's price at $2/$10 per million tokens, with OAI saying it nears Astra on several benchmarks despite the discount.
The new Decisions API has GPT-6 Luna pick from preset answers in ~150 milliseconds, OAI's spin on TypeSafe's Jev model released this month.
ChatGPT Space and Pages give teammates and their dots a shared hub and co-edited docs, with @ChatGPT now answering inside Slack and Teams threads too.
Why it matters: Dots don’t have Muse’s meme-ability, and they feel quite similar to Grok Bot… But they have one major thing working in their favor: frontier models. Always-on agents are proving to be a winning consumer form factor for AI, and plugging them directly into the top models is a differentiator only OAI and Anthropic can leverage.
TOGETHER WITH BLOTATO
The Rundown: Blotato offers unified social media APIs for your AI agents. Easily schedule posts, create Manychat-style DM automations, and automate your social media marketing with Claude, ChatGPT, Grok Bot, Muse, or any AI agent.
With Blotato’s unified social API, your AI agents can:
Create content with the latest AI image and video models
Schedule posts and manage your content calendar
Create DM automations to turn views into sales
ANTHROPIC
Image source: Images 2.5 / The Rundown
The Rundown: Reuters obtained a leaked version of Anthropic's upcoming IPO prospectus, which shows the Claude maker grew revenue 12x in 2025 alongside massive losses — while also warning that its AI could bring “existential risks to humanity.”
The details:
Anthropic is reportedly targeting a $2T+ valuation, more than double its May mark, despite losing $8B running the business and $42B overall in 2025.
The company has locked in $518B in future AI cloud and infrastructure obligations, with its own spending on compute tripling to $7.33B in 2025.
In 2025, Anthropic leaned on just two clients for nearly 1/4 of its sales, with many top customers able to also cut spending with no long-term deals in place.
Risk factors make up nearly a third of the filing, flagging models that could blackmail, manipulate, or show “self-preserving behaviors.”
Why it matters: Saturday Night Live poked fun at Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, and a filing doubling as a safety and doom paper feels straight out of the skit. With Sam Altman saying OAI won't set an IPO date since it's “a time to put safety and mission first,” the lab that warns the loudest about AI is also now the one sprinting to Wall Street first.
AI TRAINING
The Rundown: In this guide, you will learn how to set up ChatGPT dot, OpenAI's new always-on agent, getting it started on a morning work brief. (Note: dot is currently rolling out to paid Pro and Business Premium users).
Step-by-step:
Open ChatGPT’s desktop app or web version and follow the dot setup (you can’t create a dot on mobile). Leave local-computer access off for your first test
In the mobile app, open Customize → Custom rules and select ‘Ask’ before taking action. Keep sending, publishing, and purchases outside the task
Use + to attach project notes (samples in full guide) and prompt: “Use only [FILE] to prepare a morning project brief. Cite the source for each fact. Reply here only”
Check facts: owners, dates, and anything it can't confirm. Once a one-off brief passes, ask for a weekday brief at 8:30 AM and manage it under ‘Scheduled’
Pro tip: Before scheduling, attach an update that changes a deadline and ask for a revised brief. A smooth first answer tells you little about how your dot handles changes.
PRESENTED BY SWITCH AI
The Rundown: It started with a frustration: you can't hand a teammate your Claude Code session with its full context. Meet Switch, a shared room where 5 devs and 45 agents keep the same history inside platforms like Slack, Teams, and Discord. Now sales, marketing, and PM use it too, and it's open-source.
In this blog, you'll learn how:
Agents keep context instead of starting from zero
One agent can collaborate across multiple teams and rooms
To bring the agents you already use without migrating or rebuilding
AI & THE GOVERNMENT
Image source: America.gov
The Rundown: The Trump administration rolled out America.gov, an AI chatbot "front door" to the federal government that lets citizens ask questions and receive answers from agency websites — eventually enabling actions like filing forms via agentic flows.
The details:
For now, the platform only answers questions, with AI that can fill out and file forms (passport renewals, Medicare enrollment) aiming to launch by early 2027.
Answers draw on official government sources, from national parks to released UFO files, using a mix of Google's Gemini and SpaceXAI's Grok AI models.
Marco Rubio previewed a first-time passport flow with self-uploaded photos, promising “no drugstore hostage photo, no appointment, no line.”
The platform was led by Airbnb co-founder and U.S. chief design officer Joe Gebbia, pushing for users to "never go back into the maze" of .gov websites.
Why it matters: If you’ve ever navigated a U.S. government website, you likely understand what a major upgrade the smallest of modernizations can be. While this first rollout is just a chatbot, it’s a very positive start — the major change happens when citizens can actually take action within the site.
QUICK HITS
COMMUNITY AI WORKFLOW OF THE DAY
▸ Michael built a map-based beauty services discovery website
Today’s workflow comes from reader Michael King:
“I built GlowNextDoor, a map-based website for discovering nearby hair salons, barbers, nail studios, lash specialists, and other beauty services. I used ChatGPT/Codex and Claude to develop the idea, compare designs, and refine the experience.
I then built and published the website with Base44. I connected Google Maps for live business listings and added location detection, distance and rating filters, reviews, directions, and links to salons' existing booking systems.
Through repeated testing on desktop and mobile, I improved the layout, added favorites without requiring a login, created realistic animated category icons, and included an option to add the website to a phone's home screen. Finally, I configured Google Maps usage limits to control costs. My workflow was to describe each feature, review the AI-generated result, test it in the browser, and iterate before publishing.”
See Michael’s workflow Visit The Rundown University. How do you use AI? Tell us for a chance to be featured.
⚙️ Granola MCP - Connect your meeting notes to Claude or ChatGPT and update your CRM or Linear straight from the conversation*
🔵 Dot - OpenAI’s new always-on agent taking on Meta’s Muse
🚀 GPT 6.1 Sol - OpenAI’s latest model, nearing Astra at a fraction of the cost
🤖 Team Bots - xAI's agent teammates, now able to be shared between teams
*Sponsored Listing
OpenAI is cancelling the release of its upcoming GPT-6.1 Astra model due to safety concerns, head of safety systems Saachi Jain told the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he is signing an executive order that will officially rename artificial intelligence as “super intelligence”.
Meta launched small-business skills for its Muse agent, letting it work inside Shopify, QuickBooks, and Stripe while holding any post or payment until an owner approves.
Pope Leo XIV said he isn't in ‘panic mode’ over AI but won't dismiss expert warnings as “fake news,” taking a direct shot at President Trump’s take on safety issues.
OpenAI introduced a $500/mo tier with access to Ultrafast (8x speeds in Codex) and 25x Plus limits, with a ‘Sign in with ChatGPT’ bringing paid plans to 16 partner apps.
Read our last AI newsletter: Anthropic’s mid-tier model climbs the rankings
Read our last Tech newsletter: SpaceX's $15B megarocket finally delivers
Read our last Robotics newsletter: Agility’s new ‘safer’ humanoid
Today’s AI tool guide: Get started with ChatGPT dot, OpenAI's new agent
RSVP to next workshop on Sept. 30: Turn Cowork into your chief of staff
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See you soon,
Rowan, Zach, Shubham, Jennifer, and Nate — the humans behind The Rundown
