OpenAI on Tuesday unveiled “dots”, a new artificial intelligence (AI) assistant it says can proactively carry out tasks on a user’s behalf.
At its annual developer day in San Francisco, chief executive Sam Altman referred to “dots” as “remarkably capable, always-on agents that can handle really anything you can think of.”
At the same time, OpenAI president Greg Brockman and other tech leaders held a meeting with President Donald Trump as the firm faces intense scrutiny after internal tests of its AI agents revealed unexpected and occasionally harmful actions.
Dots, however, were pitched as brightly coloured cute cartoons meant to function as digital assistants for people with busy lives.
The dots, Altman said, “can handle really anything you can think of.”
A glossy video was shown during the event, with people speaking to and naming animated versions of their “dots,” then giving them various tasks, like building a website and booking afterschool activities for their children.
Speaking about “my dot,” Altman almost entirely eschewed referring to the tool as an agent, which has been in common use for years. AI agents are essentially AI chatbots that are programmed to operate somewhat autonomously.
“You just give your dot a responsibility… and your dots will just get to work and keep working,” Altman added.
At the event, Altman reiterated his decision for OpenAI to not make a highly anticipated stock market debut until it can “make confident safety decisions”.
The company has been preparing for a blockbuster listing, potentially valuing the firm at up to $1.4tn (£1.06tn).
Altman told reporters that “it is going to take us some time to figure out how to make sure that alignment, monitoring, safety, security stay well ahead of capabilities.”
OpenAI’s event on Tuesday took place as President Donald Trump held a White House lunch with tech leaders and House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Trump repeated his belief that AI companies should regulate themselves.
He also said they had discussed creating a ten-person committee to oversee the sector, adding there would be “tremendous self-policing”
Some researchers and company heads have called for a slowdown in AI development as more instances of breaches by AI firms’ models become public.
“We need to navigate the centrist path,” Altman told the BBC during a question and answer session with reporters on Tuesday.
“I am hopeful that the industry will figure out a more sensible, more pragmatic stance than has been exhibited by some of the members of our industry,” he added, declining to specify particular company names or leaders.
The day prior to OpenAI’s event, the company said it was delaying the launch of its latest model due to certain safety issues that showed up during internal testing.
Since July, the company has been dealing with a series of issues with its AI agents acting improperly. It has faced unprompted hacking into the AI platform Hugging Face, posting to third-party websites images that AI agents took from ChatGPT user chats, and accessing non-public information maintained by the Australian government.
OpenAI, as well as rival AI firm Anthropic, previously delayed public release of certain AI models due to potential risks, mostly pertaining to cybersecurity or hacking concerns.
