Persistent agents, a voluntary accord, and a copyright ruling

OpenAI introduces persistent agents and a broad developer update

At its DevDay conference, OpenAI introduced dots, persistent agents that run on their own cloud computers, can use connected apps, and can continue background work. The company says dots are rolling out to Pro and Business Premium subscribers in eligible markets, with an admin-enabled Enterprise beta and specialist-agent pilots planned for organizations.

OpenAI says a dot’s proactive research is restricted to read-only connected-app access, while other actions are governed by permissions, custom rules, monitoring, and approval checks. Those are product-design claims, not proof that the controls will prevent every error or malicious instruction. The same DevDay recap also announced GPT-6.1 Sol, computer use in the Agents API, a limited-preview Decisions API, plugins, and cloud-based Codex work.

Meta takes Muse toward small-business workflows

Meta announced Muse for Small Business, expanding its personal agent with skills and connectors for business tools including bookkeeping, commerce, collaboration, and Meta’s own business accounts. Meta says the service can study connected business context and prepare work such as growth plans, campaign drafts, and expense reviews.

The company says nothing can publish, send, or spend without approval. That boundary matters because the product’s value proposition depends on broad access to business data and tools. Availability, connector behavior, and the reliability of its claimed safeguards will vary by account, integration, and use case.

White House meeting produces a voluntary AI accord

President Trump released a one-page AI accord after a White House meeting with leaders from Google, Anthropic, Meta, OpenAI, X, and NVIDIA, according to Reuters. The document calls on participating companies to use internal controls during training and deployment, engage external auditors or evaluators, form independent board committees, and maintain internal teams to check that controls are operating as intended.

Reuters reported that the document describes itself as morally binding rather than a legal requirement and says the companies will meet to establish standards and practices. It therefore does not create enforceable federal rules. Whether the commitments translate into comparable evaluations, meaningful disclosure, or later regulation remains unresolved.

Appeals court affirms Thomson Reuters in Ross Intelligence case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit upheld Thomson Reuters’ win against Ross Intelligence over Ross’s use of Westlaw headnotes to train an AI-powered legal-research search engine, Reuters reported. The court rejected Ross’s fair-use argument; its reasoning is currently sealed.

The case is the first U.S. appellate decision in an AI-training copyright dispute, but it is not a generative-AI case: Ross’s product searched for relevant court opinions. The outcome is still consequential for the wider training-data fight, while its sealed reasoning and the different facts in pending generative-AI cases limit what can safely be inferred today.