What actually shipped in AI this week (and what didn't)
A dated roundup of the AI launches that matter this week, minus the marketing.
Three things moved in AI this week. I'm skipping the hype and giving you the dated facts, because the dates are the only part that matters.
OpenAI shipped Dots at DevDay (Sept 29-30, 2026). Dots are always-on agents that run on GPT-6 Astra with their own cloud computer, connect to 4,000-plus apps, and answer in ChatGPT, by voice, or in Slack and Teams. Every Pro plan includes one outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK. The same event put GPT-6.1 Sol live at $2/$10 per million tokens and added a $500 ChatGPT Pro tier.
Gemini 4 Argon went out to cyber defenders only (Sept 30, 2026). Google's flagship scored 53 on Artificial Analysis's index, level with GPT-6 Astra, at an introductory $2/$10 per million tokens. But it is gated to vetted cyber defenders through the Fairwind Program, so most teams can read about it and not use it yet.
Claude's 5.5 family landed across the tiers (Sept 22 - Oct 7, 2026). Opus 5.5 topped the index at 58 and cut price a fifth. Sonnet 5.5 followed at 56 and sits at number two. Haiku 5.5 arrived Oct 7 at $0.10/$0.50 per million tokens, 90 percent below Haiku 4.5, for short-context work.
The pattern: the flashy agents get the headlines, but the gated flagships and the cheap decision models are what will actually change how we build. Watch those.