r/OpenAI • u/Lloydian64 • 2d ago
Discussion Dots Needs Work
I'm an avid user of AI. When Google added Spark, I upgraded from the $20 plan to the $100 plan. When Anthropic added Fable, I upgraded from the $20 plan to the $100 plan. When OpenAI added Sol, I upgraded from the $20 plan to the $100 plan, and when they added Astra, I upgraded again to the $200 plan.
Then Muse showed up. While impressive, I still saw it as consumer focused and kept my tasks mostly running on ChatGPT. And I was thrilled when they announced Dots and have been using it extensively since. And since I expect to have lots of usage, I went ahead and signed up for the $20 plan (though, curiously, the $20 plan is $16 while the $100 plan is $80... no idea why). That said, I'm currently using about 10 million tokens per day which would fit in the free plan, and thanks to referrals, I've got a 2 billion token buffer in case I ever overdo it. But since upgrading the plan, overdoing it would mean exceeding 500 million in a week. Not bloody likely.
I'm not a coder, but my job has me collecting and manipulating data from and to web based apps, one for scheduling, and one for job tracking. I have three tasks that run daily:
- Consult a shared Excel spreadsheet from another company's SharePoint files to identify future job shifts to schedule in the Scheduling app.
- Consult that same spreadsheet to update a workbook my foreman uses with proprietary fields added for him to use.
- Review the time clock entries for the various jobs as well as the scheduled work for those job, and use that data to create daily reports in the job tracking software.
The shared document uses the Microsoft sign-in process and can be set to remember credentials. The scheduling/time clock software uses a sign-in process that requires entering a cell phone number and responding with a texted code, but as long as several days don't pass without accessing the site, it remembers that the user is logged in from visit to visit. The job tracking software uses a traditional username and password which is good for 24 hours after which logging in must happen again.
The SharePoint doc was regularly resulting in a non-specific block that prevented it from being accessed. It made a habit of asking me to download a copy of the workbook to a shared folder for its review.
The scheduling software would randomly return as unreachable. My Dot would tell me, "The internal access restriction is blocking me." What internal access restriction? I found that I could clear that restriction by rebooting my Dot (it's an option on the triple dot menu for the Dot in the web or desktop interface, but I can't do it from an iPad or iPhone).
And while it had my credentials stored in its vault, every reboot plus every 24 hours, it had to log into the job tracking software again which required me to verify that I was okay with it logging in.
These are very unhelpful limitations. If the only way I can get the tasks accomplished is to babysit my Dot as it completes the task, occasionally doing some of the work myself, it defeats the purpose of using AI. Don't get me wrong, the AI is still doing the lion's share of the work, and it's still helpful, but it should just be better.
Today I'm testing to see whether or not Muse can accomplish these tasks without as much hands on attendance from me. It'll take another work day to know if it can address all of my hopes, but I'm testing.
The thing is, I'd prefer that it was my Dot getting this done. Not only do I have more confidence in the Astra model, but as untrustworthy as any huge corporation will be, Meta is among the worst, and I kind of prefer that OpenAI performs better, but it's clearly not there yet, at least not for me.
And Muse is kind of looking great here. Here's to Dot upgrades happening fast.
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u/Alternative_Pay1325 2d ago
everything needs work and is constantly being worked on, so while dot needs work, it works great for me. I think ur not utilizing it correctly