You can now hand ChatGPT a job and close the tab.
The new feature launched on Tuesday. OpenAI calls it a dot.
(Yes, a dot. Like the punctuation. I'm sure there was a meeting.)
A dot is an AI agent with its own computer in the cloud. It runs 24/7, works across more than 4,000 apps, and checks with you when your rules say it should.
Put simply: normal ChatGPT waits for your next message. A dot just keeps going.
OpenAI's launch post on X passed 35,000 likes. Which leaves the obvious question: what do you actually give it?
That's today's email. Three first jobs, and the one setting I'd change before you hand it anything.
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Right. Back to it.
What a dot does for you
You give it a name. (The default handle is @yourname-dot. Very honest.)
You connect the apps it's allowed to use, under Customize > Plugins.
Then you give it jobs. It works on them in the background and comes back to you whenever a step needs your OK.
OpenAI's own examples: invoices, sales proposals, keeping research up to date.
Tech writer Casey Newton tested one for his newsletter, Platformer. He got roughly 2 hours of work done for about 15 minutes of his own time.
(From Simon Willison's live blog of the launch: "Dottie is having a slow morning." We've all been Dottie.)
Who can use it right now
Dots are live on ChatGPT Pro and Business Premium, for adults 18 and up. (Pro accounts in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK are left out.)
Your first dot is included at no extra cost. OpenAI says more are coming "in the future."
You create it on your computer, in the ChatGPT desktop app or ChatGPT on desktop web. After that you can talk to it from your phone, Slack or Teams.
Not on Pro? OpenAI says it plans to "expand dots to more users soon." No date yet. Stick around, there's a section for you further down.
My take: very few people need to pay for Pro just for this today. But everyone should understand it, because this is where ChatGPT is heading for all of us.
The one setting to change first
Before you give it anything, open Customize > Custom rules.
For each kind of action, you pick one of four options:
Take action without asking
Take action if pre-approved (you asked for it in your prompt)
Ask before taking action
Hand off to you
My rule for week one: anything that sends, posts, pays or deletes gets "Ask before taking action." Everything else can run on "pre-approved."
A few things are locked no matter what you choose. Changing passwords and moving money always get handed back to you. Permanently deleting data always needs your OK.
OpenAI's own safety report is the reason I'd be this careful. The more other tasks a dot juggles in between, the more it slips.
With 5 other tasks in the mix, it got flagged 8.6% of the time. With 10, it jumped to 19.7%. More than double.
None of it was severe, the report says. I'd still keep the jobs short and the rules clear.
Three good first jobs
Keep each one small and easy to check.
Job 1: a morning brief.
Every weekday at 7am, send me a brief: today's meetings with one line on who each person is, any email that needs a reply today, and anything due this week. Read only. Don't send or change anything.Job 2: meeting prep. Before any meeting with someone outside your company, a one-page brief on the person, their company and what they last emailed you about.
Job 3: the money you forgot to ask for. One early tester's dot found an article they'd never billed for, drew up the invoice and waited for their OK. Here's that job:
Once a week, look through my sent emails and calendar for work I finished that I haven't invoiced or followed up on. Draft the invoice or the follow-up email for each one. Don't send anything until I approve it.Not on Pro? Do this today
Regular ChatGPT has scheduled tasks, which are a small taste of the same idea. Free and Go get 3 active tasks, Plus gets 5.
Ask ChatGPT:
Every weekday at 7am, give me a 5-line brief on what happened yesterday in [your industry], and one question I should be thinking about today.Then write down two lists on paper. The three jobs you'd hand a dot, and the things it's never allowed to do on its own.
When dots reach your plan, you'll already know what to hand over and what to keep.
Make it stick
For the first week, open Activity View in the desktop app once a day and see what your dot has been up to.
If anything feels off, open the ••• menu and tap Pause.
And if you want a clean start, Reset deletes the dot with all its conversations, memories and scheduled tasks.
One job at a time, with you approving anything that matters. If you run a business, that's exactly how Run On Claude works.
Every month, Claude takes one job off your plate. Right now that's your social posts and your customer emails, with a new job each month picked by member vote.
You set each job up once with a 20-minute guide. Claude writes the drafts, you read them and hit send.
If it hasn't saved you 5 hours in your first 30 days, you get your first month back.
Business owners only. $147 a month until we hit 50 members.
Talk tomorrow,
Zephyr
P.S. Got a dot already? Hit reply and tell me what you named it. (If it's Dottie, I understand.)