Developer argues Dots feels like a ChatGPT feature, not a standalone product
Jerry Liu says Dots would have more impact as a standalone app, argues OpenAI is constrained by brand unification, and sees an opening for focused products like Instinct and Muse.
i kinda wish dots was a standalone app and not part of chatgpt. as it stands, it feels like a product feature (e.g. GPTs) and not a big, exciting new release. i might understand why they did it though - chatgpt is the canonical application-layer brand for openai, and creating a separate product would create contention with this brand. they had already spent a lot of work unifying codex, work, and chat into the desktop app. they have to support existing interaction patterns with chtgpt but also evolve into this new world of cloud agents and always-on assistants. any company willing to launch a new focused agent product (instinct / muse) will then have an advantage, because they will be able to concentrate mindshare around the specific space they are known for. openai could do it, but at the risk of cannibalizing the chatgpt brand. feels like some version of the innovators dilemma