Dot by OpenAI
Shares rank 17 of 26 AI assistants by recommenders
People recommend it as an always-on assistant that does research, fills web forms and runs computer tasks on request. Critics mention uneven output quality.
People recommend it as an always-on assistant that does research, fills web forms and runs computer tasks on request. Critics mention uneven output quality.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 56%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Handles web research and forms
“Predominantly it does a metric crapton of research and is able to fill out contact forms directly on webpages”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” “Can't imagine doing all that research on my own”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” Performs tasks on request
“the value for me is an always-on agent conversation, where you can tell it to perform tasks and ask it questions”
Comment from 30 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet is the first personal-assistant-type harness that feels useful” “I trusted it to do every task better than I would trust any but the absolute best personal assistants”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” “Press Right Option and Dot does work on your computer for you.”
Comment from 8 Aug 2026 in “Just built Dot. Would love feedback”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Unclear what it does
“a paragraph or two (either here or on the page itself) explaining what it is I'm looking at is essential”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: The Dot” “Is it that hard to clearly explain what it is that you've built and are now showing us?”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: The Dot” Output quality often disappoints
“It's crazy how bad Dot has been with stuff like this.”
Comment from 22 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet” “I just have not been to happy with the output”
Comment from 21 Oct 2026 in “Claude Duet”
Other AI assistants people recommend
The four most recommended other AI assistants, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude | 5,175 | 5,005 | 51% | 13 | 6 mo326 owners | — |
| Google Gemini | 2,195 | 2,236 | 50% | 13 | 6 mo98 owners | — |
| ChatGPT | 2,186 | 2,885 | 43% | 13 | 1 yr164 owners | — |
| Grok | 727 | 1,249 | 37% | 13 | 1 mo19 owners | — |
| Dot by OpenAIThis page | 10 | 8 | 56% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 21 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“their Dot product got nerfed in under two weeks”
“A Dot consuming credits passively with Astra just to deliver some low value message”
“the value for me is an always-on agent conversation, where you can tell it to perform tasks and ask it questions”
“Can't imagine doing all that research on my own”
“Predominantly it does a metric crapton of research and is able to fill out contact forms directly on webpages”
“It's crazy how bad Dot has been with stuff like this.”
“my Dot can only seem to connect with the chats on one linked machine at a time”
“I trusted it to do every task better than I would trust any but the absolute best personal assistants”
“I just have not been to happy with the output”
“It's not possible by design.”
“I use OpenAI's Dot on my phone all the time.”
“"Serious engineers" don't need cutesy re-incarnated mascots of Microsoft's Bob or MS Office Clippy paperclip assistants.”
“Press Right Option and Dot does work on your computer for you.”
“Its pure DVFS repo manager, to handle binary blobs and that it.”
“Is it that hard to clearly explain what it is that you've built and are now showing us?”
“a paragraph or two (either here or on the page itself) explaining what it is I'm looking at is essential”
“Dot is what Siri should've been - by generating shortcuts on demand”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.