ChatGPT Wallet lets OpenAI's agents buy things for you

OpenAI today announced ChatGPT Wallet, a new feature that lets its Dots AI agents complete purchases on your behalf. It was built in partnership with American Express, Mastercard, and Visa, and is initially only available for ChatGPT Pro subscribers in the US.

The idea is simple. You add a card to the Wallet once, then ask your dot to help you find something to buy, like a new sweater or a hotel for your next trip. When it's time to check out, you're shown the merchant, the items, the total, and the selected card, and you have to approve the transaction with a biometric check such as Face ID or a fingerprint scan. Each approval creates a record of what you've authorized the agent to buy.

Your actual card details are never shared with the agent or the business you're buying from. Instead, after you approve a purchase, the payment network generates a token with its own card number, security code, and expiration date, and that gets charged to your card. OpenAI says you'll keep your card's existing rewards as well as its protections for eligible disputes, for example when an item turns out to be defective.

Down the line, the company wants to let you delegate purchases entirely to your agent by setting things like spending limits, purchase categories, or time periods, and pre-approving those. We're not quite there yet, though.

Of course, all of this only works if websites don't block AI agents, and some currently do. So OpenAI is also publishing a Commerce Partner Playbook for businesses, which explains how to make sure their sites and payment systems don't inadvertently reject legitimate purchases made by agents.

ChatGPT Wallet starts rolling out today in Dots, for Pro users aged 18 and up in the US with eligible US-issued American Express, Chase, Mastercard, or Visa cards. This comes a few months after the launch of ChatGPT Finance, which lets you connect your bank accounts to the chatbot, and well over a year after ChatGPT Agent first gave the chatbot the ability to do tasks for you.

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