❯ OpenAI ships 20-plus updates at DevDay, led by always-on Dots agents, as ChatGPT becomes a workplace and app store

Agents that keep workingOpenAI held its annual developer conference, DevDay, in San Francisco on September 29, announcing more than 20 updates. The headliner was Dots: always-on agents powered by GPT-6 Astra. Each dot gets its own cloud computer and browser, connects to 4,000+ apps and keeps working after the chat window closes. Users can assign tasks in ChatGPT, Slack and Teams. OpenAI says Dots are available to Pro (including Pro 100), Business Premium and Enterprise users.

A faster tier, a pricier planOn models, GPT-6.1 Sol offers near-Astra capability at one-fifth the price (see next story). On speed, a new paid tier called Ultrafast generates about 300 tokens per second, up to 8x faster in Codex. Using it in Codex requires the new Pro 500 plan. The Pro 200 plan, previously closed to new sign-ups, reopens, but according to The Decoder usage per dollar is halved, upsetting some paying users.

Codex moves to the cloudDeveloper tools were the second theme. The new Codex Cloud provides configurable cloud environments, so tasks keep running after a programmer closes the laptop, and the Codex CLI now takes voice commands. Codex Security Cloud scans entire GitHub repositories and prepares fixes. On the API side, the Decisions API lets a model choose among predefined answers within a few hundred milliseconds. OpenAI says Responses API token traffic is up 100x from a year ago.

People and dots editing one docFor teams, OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Space, where colleagues and their dots collaborate in one place. Its Pages are live documents both people and AI can edit, with embedded charts, checklists and dashboards. ChatGPT is no longer just a chat box but a workspace for running projects.

Another shot at an app storePlugins were overhauled again: third parties can build native apps with interactive panels and file viewers inside ChatGPT, which OpenAI will recommend in conversations to its 1.2 billion+ weekly users. Plus and Pro subscribers can also sign in to 16 partner products such as Devin and Notion with their ChatGPT allowance, and enterprises can spend OpenAI commitments on software from 32 partners such as Adobe. The launches came a day after OpenAI scrapped GPT-6.1 Astra over safety concerns.

▪ SIGNALOpenAI is no longer selling just a stronger model but a whole environment for AI that works on your behalf; whoever holds users’ tasks, apps and budgets is hard to dislodge with a single better model.