OpenAI Announces New AI Tools at DevDay, Google Is Paying Digital Publishers for AI Overviews

Akash Pasricha (0:13)

Welcome, everyone, to The Information's TITV. My name is Akash Pasricha. It is Wednesday, September 30th. We are back in our New York studio. We are continuing to watch reactions today to President Trump's meeting with AI leaders at the White House yesterday. The executives signed what they call a morally binding deal around artificial intelligence or what the president is now calling super intelligence. There were a lot of funny videos and tweets about the press conference, and it'll be interesting to see if the companies actually change their strategy at all from here.

Today on the show, we are recapping OpenAI's DevDay, which also happened yesterday. We're also going to discuss our exclusive reporting that Google is now paying certain publishers for content that helps generate its AI-powered results. We're then going to bring on the CEO of EliseAI, who just raised funding at a $4 billion valuation. We're going to close out the show with a conversation with Marissa Mayer, the former CEO of Yahoo, who is launching Dazzle, which is using AI to analyze photos on your phone. It's going to be a great show, so let's get right on into it.

OpenAI hosted its DevDay yesterday, releasing a whole host of new products, including Dots, a new AI agent to take on news, Space, a new collaboration platform with docs and presentations. It also released a newer, cheaper model. Ray Wang, the CEO of Constellation Research was there on the ground. I want to bring him on to share more about what he saw. Ray, welcome back to the show. It's great to have you here.

Ray Wang (1:49)

Always great, Akash. How are you doing?

Akash Pasricha (1:51)

I'm doing well. So what was your reaction on the ground to DOTS after they released it yesterday?

Ray Wang (2:00)

It's not too late, too little. We need more from you because they know the possibilities of what OpenAI can deliver. But there was a relief like, we can do this in OpenAI. We don't have to go to Meta. So I think that was the big thing. But DOTS, for those who don't know, these are your customized persistent agents. They're specialist DOTS. These are things like, and unfortunately, I'm going to say it this way, they're Metamuse for OpenAI, which is what people were saying on the ground.

Akash Pasricha (2:26)

That's kind of a sad reaction. I think when people refer to you, your new product in the context of another product. Tell me, what about pricing?

Maybe I missed this detail. Do they have a pricing yet on DOTS, or is it included in the PRO plan?

Ray Wang (2:44)

I don't know if we had pricing on DOTS yet, but I think it's in your PRO plan and your business premium plans that are there. They also announced a bunch of plans. You have the new top-tier $500 per month plan, which I'm probably going to bluff through. There's the PRO 200 subscriptions are finally back, and of course, they're having better API times. It's 45 percent lower, which is what people were cheering to.

Right.

Akash Pasricha (3:08)

I guess when you say too little, too late, I mean, it sounds like people were underwhelmed even by what they saw. There wasn't a lot of confidence that it's going to be as good as what Muse or Instinct can do?

Well, no.

Ray Wang (3:21)

I think the concept was really what they were saying. I think they believe OpenAI can deliver better than Meta. I think that's really was like, guys, you should announce this earlier.

I think people were basically saying, look, I've got new models, I've got new capabilities. I mean, dots is really one of the things that was important. But it's the specialist dots that I think people are most excited about the ability to get to specific tasks when they want to. But on the new model front, GPT-61 sole along with a whole bunch of previews, I think that was exciting for a lot of folks who are trying to see what was next and what they had to prepare for. Of course, a lot of the API public data as we get Gigi on APIs, decision APIs, and of course, as you were saying, spaces and marketplaces.

Akash Pasricha (4:02)

Right.

Let's go to the $500 a month plan. Do you think people are going to spend that much? Is this going to really be an enterprise product? How much demand do you think there's going to be?

Ray Wang (4:18)

Well, that's the thing, right? What is an enterprise product if you are OpenAI? And the question is, it's by consumption. And I think for a lot of folks, it may be the $500 per month plan. I mean, this is the top tier.