The OpenAI company opened a new payment tool for some ChatGPT users - ChatGPT Wallet. The service allows the company's own AI agents, called "dots" in OpenAI, to independently find products and pay for purchases on behalf of the user.
The development was carried out by OpenAI in partnership with American Express, Mastercard and Visa. The user adds his card details once, then tasks the agent with finding the desired product, and confirms each purchase with a separate security check. According to the company, the agent does not physically get access to the card number - payment systems issue him a separate "payment token" with a limited card number, security code and expiration date tied to a specific transaction.
"Our goal is to focus on merchants and payment network partners and start building a truly solid foundation that will be secure and easy to use," Chaya Nayak, head of monetization and payments at OpenAI, said in an interview.
Limited launch
Currently, ChatGPT Wallet is only available to paid Pro subscribers in the US who are 18 years of age or older. At the start, OpenAI does not plan to charge transaction fees - the company is focused on building relationships with sellers and payment networks. American Express Executive Vice President and Global Head of Innovation Luke Gebb explained that the limited launch is a deliberate step: first it is worth testing the service in a controlled environment, and only then, if necessary, OpenAI can expand it to the rest of its audience - more than 1.2 billion weekly users of ChatGPT and almost 100 million paid subscribers (data as of the end of the third quarter).
Dots agents appeared in ChatGPT in September at the annual OpenAI developer conference, and the idea of payments through AI is not new for the company: last year it launched Instant Checkout, but later abandoned it, and since March it has been testing an updated format for searching and comparing products. At the same time, not all big players are ready to open their doors to AI agents: United Airlines said this week that it will block agents from accessing its reservation systems, and Amazon does not allow agents to buy products on its marketplace.
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