Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

OpenAI had a big meeting for programmers on October 2. The meeting is called DevDay.

OpenAI showed a new model for writing computer code. It is called GPT-6.1 Sol. It is much cheaper than the old one.

OpenAI also showed agents. An agent can use a computer screen. It can click buttons like a person.

There is a new tool called Dots. Dots can work on a job for a long time. There is also a shared space for teams.

programmer

A person who writes instructions for computers.

meeting

An event where people come together to talk.

model

A computer program that has learned to do a task.

code

The instructions that make a computer program work.

cheap

Costing little money.

agent

A program that does jobs for you without much help.

click

To press a button on a screen with a mouse.

team

A group of people who work together.

Level 2 — Elementary

OpenAI held its developer conference, DevDay, on October 2. The company used it to show the tools that programmers will build with over the next year.

The headline product was GPT-6.1 Sol, a model made for coding and professional work. It costs about one fifth of what GPT-6 Astra costs, and repeated text that the model has already seen is charged at only 10 cents per million tokens.

OpenAI also added computer use to its Agents API. This lets a program control other software by looking at the screen and clicking, typing and scrolling, instead of needing a special connection. The feature works through the API, through the Codex coding tool and inside ChatGPT Work.

Other announcements included cloud based Codex environments that run tasks remotely, a Decisions API in limited preview that uses the Luna model to sort requests and choose actions, a product called Dots that keeps agents working on a task over days, and ChatGPT Space, a shared workspace where a team keeps the same context.

developer conference

An event where a company shows new tools to programmers.

token

A small piece of text that an AI model reads or writes, often part of a word.

API

A way for one program to send requests to another program.

scroll

To move a page up or down on a screen.

remotely

From a distance, on another computer rather than your own.

preview

An early version released to a small group before everyone gets it.

workspace

A shared place online where people keep their work together.

context

The background information that explains a situation.

Level 3 — Intermediate

OpenAI used its DevDay conference on October 2 to shift the centre of gravity of its product line from models that answer questions toward models that operate software. The announcement that will matter most to budgets was GPT-6.1 Sol, a system aimed at coding and professional tasks that is priced at roughly a fifth of GPT-6 Astra, with cached input billed at 10 cents per million tokens. One developer summarised the appeal as Luna pricing with Astra level quality.

The most consequential technical change was the addition of computer use to the Agents API. Rather than requiring a dedicated integration for every service, an agent can now be pointed at an ordinary graphical interface and told to click, type and scroll its way through a task. The capability is exposed through the API itself, through the Codex coding tool and inside ChatGPT Work, which means it arrives in enterprise settings and developer workflows at the same time.

Around those two pillars OpenAI assembled a set of supporting releases. Codex gained cloud environments so that long running tasks execute remotely, and its command line tool picked up voice input and an agents interface for handing out several jobs at once. A Decisions API entered limited preview, using the lighter Luna model for classification, routing and choosing which action an agent should take next. The ChatGPT platform itself was opened further, with sidebar experiences, interactive panels, custom file viewers and support for an events specification that lets outside tools notify the assistant when something changes.

Two products addressed the problem of work that does not finish inside a single conversation. Dots provides persistent agents that carry a task forward over time, a direction that one OpenAI developer, Victor Nunez, said had improved markedly in the week before the conference and expected to become the normal way people interact with AI. ChatGPT Space gives a team a shared pool of context so that colleagues and their agents are working from the same material rather than reconstructing it in separate chats.

centre of gravity

The main point around which something is organised.

cached input

Text a model has processed before, which can be reused at a lower price.

integration

A purpose built connection between two pieces of software.

graphical interface

The visual part of a program, with windows, buttons and menus.

enterprise

Relating to large companies and their internal systems.

command line

A text based way of giving a computer instructions.

routing

Deciding where a request should be sent for handling.

persistent

Continuing to exist or work over a long period.

Level 4 — Advanced

Developer conferences are where a platform company reveals what it believes the next year of software will look like, and OpenAI's DevDay on October 2 was unusually legible on that point. The pricing news arrived first: GPT-6.1 Sol, aimed squarely at coding and professional work, undercuts GPT-6 Astra by roughly a factor of five, with cached input billed at ten cents per million tokens. The practical effect of that curve is to move capable model calls out of the category of things an engineering team rations and into the category of things it leaves running, a reframing one developer compressed into the phrase Luna pricing with Astra level quality.

The architectural news was the addition of computer use to the Agents API. For two years the dominant pattern for giving a model access to the world has been the purpose built integration, a connector written and maintained for each service. Computer use substitutes a general faculty for that catalogue: the agent is shown a graphical interface and expected to click, type and scroll through it in the way a new employee would. The trade off is well understood by anyone who has automated a browser, since interfaces change without notice and a workflow that depends on the position of a button is fragile. What has changed is that the model, rather than a script, is now the thing interpreting the screen.

Supporting releases filled in the surrounding infrastructure. Codex acquired cloud environments, shifting long running tasks off the developer's laptop, and its command line tool gained voice input and an agents interface for dispatching several jobs in parallel. A Decisions API entered limited preview with the lighter Luna model handling classification, routing and the selection of an agent's next action, an acknowledgement that most steps in an agentic workflow are cheap judgements that do not warrant a frontier model. The ChatGPT surface itself was opened to sidebar experiences, interactive panels, custom file viewers and an events specification allowing external systems to notify the assistant when their state changes.

The remaining two announcements concerned persistence, the hardest of the current problems. Dots offers agents that survive beyond a single exchange and continue advancing a task across days, a direction an OpenAI developer named Victor Nunez described as having improved sharply in the week before the event and as likely to become the default mode of working with AI. ChatGPT Space pools context across a team so that people and their agents draw on shared material instead of rebuilding it privately in parallel conversations. Taken together, the slate describes a company betting that the constraint on useful AI is no longer the quality of a single answer but the ability to hold a job open until it is actually done.

legible

Easy to read or interpret.

undercut

To charge less than a competitor or an earlier product.

ration

To limit the amount of something that may be used.