OpenAI’s new around-the-clock AI agents, called dots, won’t reach European users anytime soon, leaving a major market on the sidelines of the next automation wave. The company revealed the feature at DevDay in San Francisco, then quietly confirmed that Pro subscribers in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom won’t get access for now.
This isn’t an isolated case. Apple’s Siri AI also skips the EU on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, running only on Mac and Vision Pro. Meta’s Mapply agent launched three weeks ago in the United States alone, with no announced European roadmap. Europe has become a recurring blank spot for the latest AI assistants.
The rollout details paint a restrictive picture. Dots come bundled exclusively with OpenAI’s Pro plan at $200 monthly, or through Business Premium seats priced around $100 per person. Enterprise customers can test a beta, provided administrators activate it first. Meanwhile, usage allowances on the $200 Pro tier get cut in half at the end of October, just as a new $500 Pro plan arrives in Europe at 510 euros.
OpenAI hasn’t explained the geographic delay. However, the regulatory landscape offers plenty of clues. Dots require persistent access to email, calendars, and connected apps. Under GDPR, that demands a clear legal basis and defined purpose for every processing activity, especially automated profiling. The AI Act’s transparency rules, in force since August, require machine-readable labels on generated content, with fines reaching 15 million euros or 3 percent of global revenue. Brussels also designated ChatGPT as a “very large online search engine” under the Digital Services Act, forcing systemic risk assessments by January. For Meta, the Digital Markets Act layers on additional consent requirements before Mapply could combine data across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Apple blamed the DMA directly for withholding Siri AI from EU iPhones, claiming interoperability mandates would force access to user data and third-party app control. The European Commission rejected that framing. Spokesman Thomas Regnier called the decision “Apple’s and Apple’s only,” noting the company sought an 18-month exemption instead of proposing solutions.
Peter Steinberger, the Austrian developer behind the open-source agent OpenClaw, joined OpenAI in February to help build dots. His creation runs on user-owned hardware, often a dedicated Mac mini, preserving data control. Dots run entirely in OpenAI’s cloud, tied to subscriptions. For Europeans eager to try an always-on agent inspired by Steinberger’s vision, the original OpenClaw remains installable anywhere.
