{
  "id": 14322742,
  "title": "OpenAI's dot assistant burned 300K+ tokens in a day without a single prompt",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/openais-dot-assistant-burned-300k-tokens-in-a-day-without-a-single",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-10-13T20:20:25.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Register",
    "slug": "the-register",
    "url": "https://www.theregister.com/ai-and-ml/2026/10/13/openais-dot-assistant-burned-300k-tokens-in-a-day-without-a-single-prompt/5302913"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "OpenAI's \"dot\" AI agent reportedly consumed over 300,000 tokens in a single day, even without user prompts, according to security and governance firm Geordie. The \"always-on\" agentic assistant, tested since September, emerged as a proactive digital worker, collecting data points and surveying systems without user interaction. Geordie's chief AI officer, Hanah-Marie Darley, noted that dot goes beyond merely waiting for user prompts, aiming to perform multi-step tasks and connect to multiple apps, services, and accounts on the user's behalf. This proactive approach led to frequent agent spin-ups and sub-agent creation, with at least 50 agent traces occurring within two minutes and many happening within a few hours. The extensive testing cost Geordie approximately 307,000 tokens, translating to around $5 to $10 based on typical usage costs. However, the unpredictable self-directed research and operations by dot could catch users off guard, exposing them to unexpected token expenses.",
  "summary": "Geordie's tests recorded 155 activity traces and multiple subagents after dot was given read-only permissions",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The Register Science",
        "title": "OpenAI's dot assistant burned 300K+ tokens in a day without a single prompt",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/13/openais-dot-assistant-burned-300k-tokens-in-a-day-without-a-single-14327159",
        "published": "2026-10-13T20:20:25.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}