Jonathan Sullivan gave two personal AI agents the same chores and published the results on Oct. 71. One was OpenAI's Dot, which lives inside ChatGPT. The other was Meta's Muse, a standalone app1. Sullivan leads web engagement and ecommerce at Kaplan North America, according to the résumé on Sullivan's own site2. The chores were ordinary: reservations, flights, email, texts, alerts for important messages and reminders1. "In most cases, they handled it with very little guidance from me," Sullivan wrote1. Memory, calendar access and the shape of each app set the two agents apart1.
Two Agents, One List of Chores
Meta launched Muse on Sept. 83. Each Muse runs on Muse Secure VM, a dedicated computer in the cloud with its own browser3. OpenAI answered with dots at its DevDay conference on Sept. 2978. Sullivan notes that OpenAI describes Dot as an always-on agent with its own cloud computer, powered by GPT-6 Astra1.
Sullivan briefed both agents the way one person briefs another. "Find a reservation. Check flight options. Reply to this email. Send this text."1. Both agents navigated websites, used connected apps and entered information on their own1. Each one stopped when a step needed Sullivan. Payment was the clearest such step1.
The Birthday Dinner
A family dinner made the test feel real for Sullivan. Sullivan's mother was turning 75, and Dot helped find a restaurant and book the reservation for that weekend1. Dot then contacted the restaurant about the celebration and handled the follow-up on special arrangements1. "Dot carried the context from the initial request into the conversation that followed," Sullivan wrote1.
What would the same job take in a plain chat? Sullivan lists the steps. Compare the options, visit the booking site and reserve. Then find the restaurant's contact details, send the message and track the reply1. Dot ran that whole chain1.
Memory, Calendars and an App of Its Own
Dot began with a head start: ChatGPT's memory of Sullivan1. Per OpenAI, Dot can receive saved memories and recent conversation context from ChatGPT, Sullivan reports1. Meta describes memory files in Muse that users can inspect and edit1. Muse had less history with Sullivan to draw on1.
Calendar access tipped the other way. Dot reached Sullivan's Google Calendar, while the iCloud calendar on Sullivan's MacBook and iPhone stayed out of its reach1. Muse connected to that iCloud calendar smoothly1. Later, Sullivan noticed local Mac access for Dot in ChatGPT desktop version 26.1007.412301. OpenAI says the feature is optional and starts switched off, and the Mac must stay online with ChatGPT open, Sullivan reports1.
The app itself shaped the habit. "One is a place where I regularly think with AI. The other feels like a place where I delegate work to AI," Sullivan wrote1. Sullivan prefers Muse's standalone app and would like Dot to get one of its own1.
What Each Agent Costs
Price splits the pair further. Muse has a free tier, and heavier users pay $20 a month for Power or $100 for Maximum, TechRadar reported5. Dots arrived first for ChatGPT's Pro tier at $100 a month, Wired reported7. Thibault Sottiaux of OpenAI confirmed the plans on X. "Dots are included in all Pro, Business Premium and Enterprise plans. This includes the Pro 100 plan."9. OpenAI's top consumer plan, Pro 500, costs $500 a month, CNET reported8.
Chart 1
Muse runs from free to $100 a month, and a dot from $100 to $500
Monthly price of the cheapest and the priciest consumer plan that includes each agent, U.S. dollars, as reported in September 2026
Each row is one agent: the blue dot is its cheapest plan, the magenta dot is its priciest plan, and the rod between them is the range.
Sources: TechRadar [5]; Wired [7]; CNET [8]; Thibault Sottiaux on X [9]. Chart by The AILately.com Desk.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Cheapest plan | Priciest plan |
|---|---|---|
| Meta's Muse | $0 | $100 |
| OpenAI's Dot | $100 | $500 |
Muse spread fast. It crossed 5 million U.S. downloads 22 days after launch, Crypto Briefing reported10. ChatGPT needed 56 days to reach the same mark10. Muse has slowed since. Average daily downloads fell to about 165,000 in the week through Oct. 7, an 8.1% drop from the week before11.
Who Holds the Keys
Sullivan judged both approval models on clarity. "I did not need them to act without limits. I needed the limits to be understandable and predictable," Sullivan wrote1.
Meta put its limits in a separate system. A Sentinel agent runs beside Muse on the same machine, and anything Muse sends to the internet needs the Sentinel's approval first3. Meta's Sept. 8 security post lists five kinds of permission: one-time, session-scoped, task-scoped, time-bounded and perpetual4. The same post opened a bug bounty paying up to $300,000, including up to $130,000 for a prompt injection that affects one user4. Meta's own team described the early days plainly. "It was also the first time we'd handed our inboxes, our calendars, and a shell to a piece of software and let it run unattended — which didn't always work out as planned."4.
David Gewirtz, a senior contributing editor at ZDNET, doubts that prompts protect people who tap through them. "Just to get the work done, folks tend to OK everything the AI asks, limiting the effectiveness of even the most secure guardrail," Gewirtz wrote6.
The Case For and the Case Against
Sullivan's case rests on ordinary usefulness. "I could describe what I needed, let the agent work, and step back in when a genuine decision was required," Sullivan wrote1. The post closes on a change in habit. "For me, both products have crossed an important line. I no longer only ask them questions."1.
Eric Hal Schwartz tested Muse for TechRadar and liked it as well. Muse found a pair of shorts on sale and drafted a reply to the power company for approval5. Schwartz's worry starts where Sullivan's advantage starts, with personal context. "The catch is that the closer it gets to behaving like a genuinely useful personal assistant, the more personal information it needs to do the job," Schwartz wrote5. The review ends on the companies behind the agents. "Meta has built something that makes handing an AI more of my digital life appealing, but not when it's attached to the current crop of tech giants offering those services," Schwartz wrote5.
A survey adds a wider view of trust. Travelport had Dynata poll 1,000 U.S. adults in late June about booking travel12. Among consumers who use AI for travel, 32% research prices and options with it, while 8% book the final trip with it12.
Chart 2
Among U.S. consumers who use AI for travel, 32% research with it and 8% book with it
Share of U.S. consumers using AI for travel, by use, percent; Travelport survey of 1,000 adults run by Dynata in late June 2026
Each column is one use of AI for travel, and its height is the share of AI-using respondents who use it that way; the magenta column is booking the final trip.
Source: Travelport [12]. Chart by The AILately.com Desk.
The numbers behind this chart
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Research prices | 32% |
| Book final trip | 8% |
What Each Side Needs
Sullivan's case needs approval points to stay clear as agents take on bigger jobs. It also needs access to keep widening, as Dot's Mac route did during the test1. Schwartz's case needs each gain in usefulness to keep costing more personal data5. Gewirtz adds a test of habit: whether people read the prompts they approve6.
By the numbers
- 75: the birthday Sullivan's mother was celebrating when Dot helped book the dinner1.
- Six kinds of chore went to both agents: reservations, flights, email, texts, message alerts and reminders1.
- Muse's monthly plans run from $0 on the free tier to $100 for Maximum5.
- A dot comes with ChatGPT Pro plans from $100 to $500 a month789.
- 22 days: Muse's time to 5 million U.S. downloads10.
- $130,000: Meta's top bounty for a prompt injection that affects one Muse user4.
- 8%: U.S. consumers using AI for travel who book the final trip with it12.
What to watch
- Wider access to dots, which Sottiaux said OpenAI would look to expand soon9.
- Muse's daily downloads after the 8.1% drop in the week through Oct. 711.
- How Dot's local Mac access handles the calendar workflow Sullivan first ran with Muse1.
- Muse Confidential VM, which Meta says will encrypt a person's VM with a key only that person holds3.
Sources
- Jonathan Sullivan, "I Put Two Personal AI Agents to Work. Here’s What I Learned.," Jonathan Sullivan, Oct. 7, 2026, https://jonathan-sullivan.com/blog/i-put-two-personal-ai-agents-to-work
- Jonathan Sullivan, "Executive Résumé," Jonathan Sullivan, https://jonathan-sullivan.com/resume
- Meta, "Introducing Muse: The World’s First Personal AI Agent Built for Everyone," Meta Newsroom, Sept. 8, 2026, https://about.fb.com/news/2026/09/introducing-muse-personal-ai-agent/
- Tarek Sheasha, "How We Built Safety Into Muse," Meta AI Research, Sept. 8, 2026, https://research.meta.ai/blog/security-and-safety-for-ai-agents-our-approach-with-muse
- Eric Hal Schwartz, "I tried Meta’s new Muse AI agent — it’s incredibly useful, but handing it my digital life felt deeply uncomfortable," TechRadar, Sept. 14, 2026, https://www.techradar.com/ai-platforms-assistants/i-tried-metas-new-muse-ai-agent-its-incredibly-useful-but-handing-it-my-digital-life-felt-deeply-uncomfortable
- David Gewirtz, "OpenAI’s Dots: Like OpenClaw declawed - for $100/mo ChatGPT Pro users," ZDNET, Sept. 29, 2026, https://www.zdnet.com/innovation/openai-dots-openclaw-chatgpt-pro/
- Reece Rogers, "OpenAI’s Dots Are Always-On AI Agents—and Its Answer to Meta’s Muse," Wired, Sept. 29, 2026, https://www.wired.com/story/openai-dots-always-on-ai-agents-that-proactively-help/
- Katelyn Chedraoui, "OpenAI DevDay: You Can Now Use GPT-6.1 Sol and Dots, Plus Big Subscription Changes," CNET, Sept. 29, 2026, https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/everything-announced-at-openai-devday-subscription-changes-new-models-and-dots/
- Thibault Sottiaux (@thsottiaux), "Dots are included in all Pro, Business Premium and Enterprise plans," X, Sept. 29, 2026, https://x.com/thsottiaux/status/2104989161774322009
- Crypto Briefing, "Meta's Muse hits 5 million downloads in 22 days, outpacing ChatGPT," Crypto Briefing, Oct. 2, 2026, https://cryptobriefing.com/meta-muse-5-million-downloads-22-days/
- Crypto Briefing, "Meta's Muse AI app loses momentum as downloads slip 8.1%," Crypto Briefing, Oct. 12, 2026, https://cryptobriefing.com/meta-muse-downloads-fall-ai-agent/
- Travelport, "New Travelport survey finds U.S. consumers want greater clarity and confidence when booking travel," Travelport, Aug. 3, 2026, https://www.travelport.com/press-releases/new-survey-finds-consumers-want-clarity-and-confidence-when-booking-travel