ChatGPT Learns to Fight Back: OpenAI Builds Counter-Agent Features for Grok Bot and Mulls a Muse Rival

For most of the past two years, OpenAI set the tempo of the AI industry: it shipped the chatbot, it shipped the reasoning models, and rivals scrambled to respond. On September 21, 2026, The Information reported something directionally new — OpenAI is now the one scrambling. According to the report, which cites people familiar with the effort, the company is developing features aimed directly at SpaceX’s Grok Bot, the always-on AI “teammate” launched in August as part of the $30-per-month SuperGrok subscription. Separately, OpenAI leadership has discussed building a dedicated personal assistant to compete with Muse, the consumer agent Meta released earlier this month.

What OpenAI is actually building

The report describes two distinct workstreams. The first targets Grok Bot’s core mechanic: persistent, named digital collaborators that live on a shared cloud computer. Grok Bot agents can log into applications including Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion and Figma, observe how a user operates software, learn those workflows, and then replicate them autonomously — continuing to run in the background even when the user’s device is powered off. Users can configure approval gates before sensitive actions such as sending emails, initiating purchases, transferring funds, or modifying data in other applications. OpenAI’s counter, per The Information, is a set of features that would bring comparable always-on, cross-application agency to its own products.

The second workstream is a response to Meta’s Muse, a mobile-centric agent that handles merchant communications, email replies, and online shopping. Muse arrived in free and paid tiers ($20 or $100 per month depending on usage) and landed after Instinct, the invitation-only assistant app that demonstrated early consumer appetite by surpassing 100,000 users. OpenAI leadership has discussed — but, notably, not committed to — a dedicated assistant product positioned against it.

The technology was already there

The most striking detail in the reporting is that OpenAI does not lack the underlying capability. A portion of ChatGPT users already connect the app to their email and calendar accounts, enabling automations such as scheduling appointments and corresponding with businesses — with some tasks spanning multiple days. ChatGPT agent, launched in July 2025, thinks, uses tools, and completes tasks like research, bookings, and slideshows. Codex, OpenAI’s coding agent, is widely used through CLI “yolo mode” for exactly the kind of background automation Grok Bot markets.

The company has also said that every model iteration since GPT-5 was designed with long-horizon tasks in mind. The problem, as The Information puts it, is that these capabilities are underrecognized: many OpenAI users simply do not know the agentic features exist. While OpenAI’s technology sat inside a chat interface, SpaceX and Meta shipped agent-first products with memorable names, clear pricing, and demo-friendly workflows — and captured the mindshare. OpenAI’s push is as much a packaging and positioning exercise as an engineering one.

Why the default agent matters so much

The competitive stakes extend well beyond feature checklists. Whoever becomes a user’s default agent becomes the custodian of an extraordinarily intimate data portrait: relationships, schedules, spending habits, and communication patterns. That data relationship could prove among the most valuable in consumer technology — a moat that deepens with every task delegated. It gives incumbents and challengers alike a powerful incentive to establish loyalty early, before users entrench around a rival’s assistant.

There is also a structural asymmetry worth watching. Meta distributes Muse through apps billions of people already open daily; SpaceX bundles Grok Bot into an X-centric subscription with payment rails attached. OpenAI’s distribution is a destination app people visit deliberately. In an agent world, where the assistant must be trusted to act while the user is absent, being embedded in an existing daily workflow is a genuine advantage — one OpenAI must now offset with capability and trust.

From chatbots to agents: the shift in one report

The framing that makes this story significant is historical. Chatbots like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini excelled at retrieving information and offering advice; they were far less effective at handling complex personal tasks like booking reservations or negotiating with vendors. Grok Bot and Muse were built agent-first to fill that gap. The Information’s report is effectively confirmation that the market’s center of gravity has moved: OpenAI — the company that defined the chatbot era — is now organizing product development around agents that execute rather than answer.

OpenAI has not disclosed a timeline for releasing features that would directly rival Grok Bot or Muse. But the direction is set: the first defensive product cycle of the agent wars has begun, and ChatGPT, the app that started it all, is being repositioned from oracle to operator.