Here’s the one I’m sticking with

I’m the first to admit I was late to the game when it came to integrating AI into my life. AI tools on my smartphone felt (and still feel) useless and left a sour taste in my mouth. Large language models I used on my desktop, such as ChatGPT and Claude, showed significantly more promise, but they didn’t feel like something casual users would adopt easily.

That’s changed over the last couple of months. I’ve ramped up my Codex usage, and I’ve become interested in chat agents designed to bring powerful AI features and functionality to users who aren’t necessarily up to date on the latest from Anthropic and OpenAI. These new agents are easier to use, look friendlier, and promise to be more proactive.

I’ve used Meta Muse and ChatGPT Dots, and I’ll be sticking with the former (for now). Here’s why.

I love how easy it is to get started with Muse. If you have a Meta account from Facebook or Instagram, you’re basically good to go. I’m greeted with a familiar interface, and it looks like I’m just having a Facebook Messenger conversation with my new chatbot friend. Setting up my custom avatar is a snap, too. I simply told Muse I wanted an orange cat avatar, and away I went.

It’s important to note that Meta Muse is currently free. Paid tiers exist if you hit usage limits, but I’ve never used more than 50% of my weekly allotment. It depends on how much you use your chat agent, but for now, I think most casual users will be pleased with what they get without paying extra. Meta might change that in the future, but I appreciate not adding yet another subscription to my monthly tally.

Muse acts like a build-your-own-adventure, with the main draw being that it can do things proactively even without constant input from you. I set mine up for several tasks throughout the day. I like it scouring eBay for solid deals on retro tech, but also scanning my emails for anything important I’ve missed. It works surprisingly well, catching several items I’d overlooked in the daily mess of emails.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing, but I’ve also spent a few dollars on eBay from its recommendations. I can even tell Muse my preferred way to search eBay, sorting by newly listed items with a Buy It Now price. It all works well, and I can set how often my assistant scans and messages me, so I’m not constantly spammed with alerts.

I recently had Muse help plan a drive down to Florida, and it did an excellent job of picking hotels within my budget and planning stops along the way. Muse has been sending me gentle reminders about upcoming events and suggesting (useful) steps for preparation. I wouldn’t quite trust Muse yet to complete the bookings, but it did send me straight to the reservation pages for the hotels I wanted. Muse is one of the AI tools I’ve been waiting for, packaging generative AI functionality into a user-friendly app.

Equally useful are the Feed and Idea sections. Once it gets to know you a little and completes some tasks for you, you can scroll through prompts and reminders with visuals and links to apps like your calendar. It’s a useful summary of what you’ve done so far, and it serves as a reminder of what’s coming up. I also like the Ideas section; it lets Muse be more proactive in suggesting tasks it can complete.

Any conversation comparing Muse and ChatGPT’s Dots has to start with the obvious — price. I can (and do) get to enjoy many of Muse’s benefits without paying a dime. However, to access a Dot, I need a ChatGPT Pro account, which starts at $100 a month. I was hoping people could access Dots with a Plus subscription, but that’s not currently the case. It’s a major consideration, and it absolutely skews my view of the two products.

Still, Dots are impressive, and I’ve enjoyed my time using mine. You’ll notice right away it doesn’t have the same standalone feel as Meta Muse. You can use it in your ChatGPT app, and it has its own section at the top, but I don’t get the same home-screen shortcut I do with Muse. I may prefer Muse’s aesthetics, but there is no doubt that my Dot is more versatile.

I started out by giving my Dot the same tasks as Meta Muse. It searches eBay a few times a day for new items, and it filters through my emails. I found it does the job just as well as Muse. I also asked it about my upcoming trip, and while it didn’t plan it exactly the same, it did a decent job scouting out a route and hotels that made sense.

My ChatGPT Dot can absolutely handle the basics. However, it’s a pretty reasonable assumption that if you’re paying $100 a month for a ChatGPT Pro subscription, you’re a heavy user, and that’s where the Dot starts to shine. You can connect your Muse to a WhatsApp chat, but I enjoy the flexibility of Dots to use regular RCS messaging if I choose. I understand I can always have the app available on my phone, but I appreciate having the option.

What brings Dots to life for me is its integration with my other ChatGPT conversations and projects. I work with a lot of vintage tech, and Codex is a fantastic tool for getting modern computers to talk to older hardware. My Dot knows about my ongoing projects and can proactively manage them for me. I’m currently trying to get my Palm V from the 90s receiving emails again. I’ve been using Codex to do the heavy lifting and then copying the outputs into a ChatGPT conversation for analysis and further prompts. My Dot can help automate that process, push the project forward, and handle issues as they come up, only prompting me on the really important decisions — that’s a significant change to my workflow.

My Dot also found an interesting article online about an HP 95LX from 1992, and some hardware specs I can use in a future project. That’s the kind of proactive, generative AI I was promised years ago, and I can finally see some light at the end of the tunnel.

I can easily see you getting your money’s worth if you manage several projects at once and want a proactive agent handling the grunt work. I also love that my Dot can pull from previous conversations. I know that’s an unfair advantage over Muse, since I already have such a huge ChatGPT backlog, but it’s still great to see the tight integration, and I look forward to what capabilities OpenAI adds over time.

If you’re a hardcore ChatGPT user and you’re already on a Pro plan, you’ll enjoy Dots. It’s a robust platform, and I can only see it growing in functionality. However, the one I’m sticking with the most and recommend for most users is Muse. It has a fun aesthetic, and it’s easy to use. It may not be as feature-rich as ChatGPT Dots, but it’s currently free, which is a huge advantage for users new to AI agents.

Muse lets people try it out without fear of loss and see whether they can work an AI tool into their daily lives. Using an AI agent no longer requires complex prompts, and getting more done through natural-language conversations is a huge step forward for consumer AI products.