OpenAI Dev Day 2026: The releases that actually matter

Claire Vo (0:00)

Today, I spent the day in San Francisco at OpenAI's Dev Day. And it was a fun one, not just because TiBo let me smash the Codex Reset button for you all. I was there from the keynote throughout the day, and I have good news for you and bad news for you. The good news is OpenAI released a lot of stuff. The bad news is OpenAI released a lot of stuff. There was a lot jam-packed into the Dev Day keynote. Everything from OpenAI's answer to RockBot and Muse, to platform components that developers are really going to use. It felt like every two or three minutes, the team was announcing something new. I was able to test some of it early. I want to share for you the highlights from the releases, so you know what to pay attention to, depending on what's important to you. And also maybe three or four things that I've spent a little bit more time with and I've come to an early opinion on, so you can see what I think about all these new releases.

Okay, so the big release of the morning, the big bang thing, first thing up in the keynote is Dots. Dots are an always-on, long-running agent that can work across ChatGPT, across Codex, in its own computer, on your computer, on your phone, whether through text or through call, even in your Slack to get work done for you. And I was able to test Dots pretty early. In fact, so early, it's hard for me to give you all a full review because it's very clear that the OpenAI team is building and building and building on this every minute, every hour, making it better. I think what I want to get across to you is like, where do bots sit in this ecosystem of like, Grokbot's very popular, Muse is getting some traction, Instinct is still out there, you know, texting people.

What are Dots? What do I think of them and where do I think they're going? So again, Dots are your agents. And I asked the team, do I get one Dot or many Dots? And right now we are issued a single Dot. So if you're on pro business enterprise, a couple of the key plans, you should have your Dot in ChatGPT in the Codex app right now.

So this is my Dot, her name is Bay. She's a pink blob with glasses and googly eyes. And Bay has her own computer. So as you can see here, there's a machine that your Dot can use, or you can take over and use it yourself. It's loaded with, of course, a browser but also a bunch of apps, things that are probably pretty interesting to developers. In addition to their computer, you can give your Dot access to your local computer. So again, sort of this like always on in the cloud, anywhere bot that can work locally or it can work in its own machine. Some interesting things that they're pushing with Dots is the kind of like multi-channel experience of a Dot. So you can, of course, use your Dot in the ChatGPT desktop or mobile app, but you can also call your Dot. So they've actually made this not voice mode with your Dot. They're really calling it call your Dot. It rings, it picks up.

I'm curious. It's like an interesting, unique interaction, user experience pattern. I'm not sure that I quite get all the interactions between transcribing voice, live voice, and then calling, but you know, you do you, Bae. And then of course, because we're all enterprises, we're all teams, and we're all on Slack, the ability to install your Dot in Slack. Now, one of the things that I find most confusing about Dots is just like, where does it sit in the ecosystem of all the other ChatGPT surfaces and all the codec surfaces?

So, Dot can do work. They position it as a sort of like replica or delegate of you. So it's sort of like your main thread.

And so you have kind of like one master Dot that is responsible for all your work, can be proactive towards you, can remind you of things, can do work on its own, but it can also kick off codecs threads, and I think Chat threads, they're kind of like one and the same, and do work on your behalf. And so, you know, I think they still have to figure out the information architecture. I want to do a full Dot review, but I want to do it when it's baked, and I know that it's really going to work, but it is worth paying attention to.