OpenAI built the modern generative chatbot. Now it is playing catch-up in the category that matters most: the 24/7 AI assistant you keep running in the background. The company’s 2026 DevDay event arrives Tuesday, and rumors suggest it will finally unveil its own answer to Meta’s Muse, SpaceX’s Grok Bot, and the rest — a platform called Aeon.
The sequence of events points to something significant. At the 2024 DevDay, OpenAI previewed an agentic API feature, and shortly after, in mid-2025, it put out early consumer-focused agents aimed at computer use and research. OpenClaw arrived the following year, shifting from a proof of concept into a working reality. From there, the pace of development quickened, even as OpenAI’s outward progress on agents has fallen behind.
The Agents Already Out
According to Apptopia, Meta’s Muse is the top app on the App Store charts at the moment, having gathered 600,000 daily active users in the US. The early reviews of it fall into the category of useful but slightly creepy. Its rival Instinct has made waves for its ease of use, allowing users to chat with its agent over iMessage and many other apps.
Google’s Gemini Spark runs on 24/7 and serves consumers, connecting to upwards of 30 outside service partners such as Dropbox, Uber, and Spotify. Other agents are said to be handling real tasks, from arranging travel and grocery orders to scheduling meetings and assisting with work presentations. They also help file paperwork for medical visits, cancel subscriptions, organize group trips, book activities, set up DMV appointments, and pay bills.
Accounts can be taken over by attackers because of at least one known weakness, and there is evidence that Muse shared a home address without permission and read private messages. Neither of these claims has been confirmed.
What We Know About Aeon
We don’t actually know much at all. What we do know with some certainty is that OpenAI currently employs Peter Steinberger, the creator of OpenClaw. It stands to reason he is contributing his skills to the project.
The expectations surrounding OpenAI’s DevDay announcements are very high. The company has been promoting its latest frontier model, GPT-6 Astra, as the point where artificial general intelligence arrives. “I think it’s not unreasonable to feel that we are now in the AGI era,” OpenAI president Greg Brockman said during a press briefing earlier this month.
OpenAI’s announced agent would probably rest on Astra, which means Aeon could become stronger at cybersecurity tasks, software engineering, scientific research, and computer use.
The Race Around Aeon
OpenAI is at a disadvantage in some ways. Muse integrates with other Meta services used by billions of people. Gemini Spark connects to Google’s wide range of enterprise and personal services. At OpenAI’s past annual events, it has tried to bridge the gap — like last year, when OpenAI heavily pushed the new ChatGPT Apps SDK, allowing controls for other apps like Zillow, Spotify, and Canva to surface within the chatbot experience.
Among the stories circulating at DevDay, there’s talk of possible changes to the AI hardware devices the company is building alongside famed ex-Apple designer Jony Ive, along with a possible push forward for GPT-6, a hardware update, and perhaps additional claims about artificial general intelligence. A constantly running AI agent would bring much of this together, which is why it’s likely OpenAI’ remains the company’s next major wager, especially as the firm bids farewell to “side quests.”
How does Aeon measure up to OpenAI’s cheap, heavily integrated competitors’ agents, especially given the enormous strain of its pending IPO?
Key dates:
| Event | Date |
|---|---|
| 2024 DevDay agentic API demo | 2024 |
| Mid-2025 consumer agent releases | Mid-2025 |
| OpenClaw proof-of-concept to practical success | Late 2025 |
| 2026 DevDay Aeon announcement expected | Tuesday |
What the competing agents can do:
- Booking travel and groceries
- Scheduling appointments
- Helping with work presentations
- Filing paperwork for doctor visits
- Canceling subscriptions
- Organizing group trips
- Booking activities
- Setting up DMV appointments
- Paying bills
OpenAI’s agents need to catch up. The company has the technology and the hype machine. Whether it can deliver an agent that matches Meta’s integration, Google’s partners, and OpenClaw’s proof-of-concept record remains to be seen.
Source material: “OpenAI’s AI agents need to catch up,” The Verge.
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