ChatGPT's dots, Grok's bots, our moonshot

Every Monday I take the craziest stuff that happened in AI and pull out ideas you can use on the parts of your life that, I believe, don't show up in a performance review.

Stick around till the end, because that's how you grab one of the first 300 spots.

"It will text you proactively with relevant updates." (@ChatGPT, OpenAI's official account)

Dots are OpenAI's always-on assistants. An early one gave OpenAI's Alexander Embiricos a three-minute heads-up before a calendar conflict, he told TechCrunch. And on October 28, OpenAI let Pro users in the US text their dots over iMessage, right next to their friends.

You text your dot a task, or something to keep an eye on, as a text, a photo or even a voice note. Then it texts you back on its own when something changes. You don't open an app or write a prompt, and it sits right next to your group chat. AI just stopped waiting to be asked.

The takeaway: If you let an AI text you first, tell it to only hit you up when someone needs you or something's due today. Everything else can wait till you open your phone. I want AI working for me, not buzzing at me.

"Try it, don't pay for it." (the name of a new Grok Bot template)

You usually find out about a free trial when it bills you. On October 27, xAI gave its Grok Bots a template that "starts a free trial for you and cancels it, or reminds you, before it bills." Another one finds the subscriptions you're still paying for and cancels the ones you pick.

The takeaway: The day you start a free trial, set a reminder for the day before it bills. It takes a few seconds, and you'll never eat an $89.99 charge for an app you forgot about. Even better, let a bot cancel it for you. I'd rather spend that $89.99 on a day out with the boys.

A bot can catch a trial because it's written down somewhere. What your friends say out loud, on the dock or at dinner, never gets typed anywhere.

8 days.

On Tuesday, November 10, at 9 AM PT, something lifts off on Kickstarter that we've been sitting on for months. Biggest launch in Moonshot history. Some of it stays under wraps until then. Some of it I'm telling you right now.

Luna is real. We built it to be the best way to give AI context on your life while getting in your way as little as possible. It's a 27 mm necklace with two mics, no camera and no screen. It hears what's said out loud, the plans and promises that never get typed anywhere. When something needs you, it glows and gives a buzz only you feel. Then Samantha, Luna's AI, tells you in your earbuds or on your phone, while there's still time.

My friend Darius runs everything on AI. ChatGPT, Claude, an agent in the inbox. None of it heard what Dan said to Darius in passing three weeks ago. Luna did:

Luna first felt real to me when I got early access to the prototype, and it was weird. I won't lie to you guys. You'd think something can't be this human when it's just a moon.

I was frustrated, and I was being unnecessarily silent and harsh. My friends didn't know about my internal turmoil, so they kept reaching out to me. And like a dumbass, I felt like I couldn't be heard.

Then Samantha, the voice of Luna, spoke up like a hand of warmth: "Jacob wanted you to go boating with the boys on Friday." It had completely slipped my mind, and it wasn't a calendar invite that saved me. It was like a friend tapped me on the shoulder and reassured me that I wasn't facing life alone.

We are on the verge of something crazy. We designed a powerful, proactive personal superintelligence. It speaks up before you have to ask, through an interface that's ever-present in your day-to-day life, and it's focused on strengthening the relationships your life is built on.

We finished shooting the launch video on Sunday.

We also added a dial for how often Samantha calls you on her own: usual, less often, or never.

That tap on the shoulder is what Luna's built for.

It's mirror-polished steel with a stone face that lights up, on a fine steel chain. It fits over a tee or under a collar, and it works with the iPhone or Android phone you already have.

Tap it twice, and it stops listening. What it hears is stored on our private server, and it's deleted when you ask.

So I went boating with the boys on Friday and absolutely wiped out 💀. Maybe the wood splinters from running on the dock weren't worth it, but the memories I made were.

See you at liftoff.

Anish

P.S. Hit reply and tell me the one person you'd want Luna to remind you about. And if you want in, reserve for $1 here.

Sources: @ChatGPT on X (Oct 28) · TechCrunch (Oct 26) · xAI Grok Bots changelog (Oct 27)