AI · October 20, 2026 · 2 min
Dots and Muse handle the planning, but stall at the checkout
An Axios reporter gave OpenAI’s Dots and Meta’s Muse the same trip, party and shopping jobs. Both did the legwork well; neither was ready to just buy things.
Axios’s Ina Fried ran OpenAI’s Dots and Meta’s Muse through the same set of chores built around the WNBA Finals: plan a trip to Atlanta for a Golden State Valkyries game, put together a purple-themed brunch watch party, make souvenir programs, and shop for merchandise.
On research, both agents did well. Each noticed that the game had moved up a day and that tickets were only on the resale market, and each found reasonable flights. Dots also flagged a clash with a school enrollment fair it knew about from her earlier chats.
The creative work was elaborate but needed editing. Dots produced an eight-page brunch packet and a 38-page retro program, and turned her game photos into a 12-page keepsake in 47 seconds. Muse made a 10-page recipe booklet and a 35-page program, and both programs had shaky statistics.
Buying was the weak spot. Muse got stuck at Target’s sign-in page, while Dots sent her to the Target app, where her account was already saved, which ended up faster. Her takeaway: let the agents do research and legwork, and keep the final decisions. Dots needs ChatGPT Pro from $100 a month or a business plan; Muse is free for most uses.