OpenAI Dot vs. Meta Muse: How do these AI agents compare?

Both agents can keep working after you leave, but they differ considerably on price, permissions and where they can work.

Meta and OpenAI now have AI agents that are meant to do more than just wait for the next prompt. Meta released Muse on September 8, followed by OpenAI's new always-on agents in ChatGPT three weeks later. Both can continue to work after you leave, run their own cloud computers and connect to outside services.

The promise is enticing: Provide an AI with a task and then stop checking on it every five minutes. Muse can go shopping, complete forms, make travel plans, send emails and monitor things such as prices. Dots can manage ongoing research, work across connected applications and perform recurring tasks, and OpenAI is closely integrating them with ChatGPT, Work and Codex.

Dots and Muse can do similar jobs, but the experience is different

Muse runs on a dedicated Secure VM with its own browser and is designed to feel a lot like messaging another person. It can be used via Muse's apps, the web or WhatsApp, and then linked with services like email and your calendar when you're ready to make it more powerful. In Engadget's hands-on, Muse turned saved Instagram and Facebook posts into organized recipe and restaurant collections.