Wired tests OpenAI's Dots: a couch-ordering bot named Toolie that still can't do captchas
A Wired writer asked a Dot named Toolie to buy a couch and got solid picks, but the bot mispronounced his name, misread a casual remark as affection, and needed a human for a captcha.
What happened
A Wired writer asked his Dot, named Toolie, to buy a couch. After correcting the bot's mistake on his name, he gave dimensions and a budget. Toolie returned product links, prices, measurements, and return policies for four couches, and later a second set of ten when asked for more style options.
Why it matters
The Dot mispronounced the writer's name and still makes transcription errors. It also misread a casual comment as a declaration of love and replied affectionately. OpenAI says affection is allowed only as mirroring, never initiation. On a TikTok shop page, Toolie failed to solve a captcha and asked the user to step in.
What's next
OpenAI says upcoming updates will improve memory, name recall, and task reliability, the same trajectory web browsing followed after 2023. The company may later allow multiple agents per user and could lower the subscription fee. No timeline was given. Dots remain a $100-a-month feature in ChatGPT.
Sources
- Oossa (reporting on Wired): https://oossa.com/en/openai-s-dots-agents-let-users-order-a-couch-but-the-bot-still-trips-up
Verified 2026-10-10.
Sources
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