The four questions that actually differ

When people compare personal agents they argue about the model. Ignore that. Four other questions decide which one fits you and how to run it safely — and the three products answer them differently.

1. Isolation — does each agent get its own computer? Muse gives each person a dedicated Muse Secure VM (its own cloud computer and browser). Dots gives each dot its own cloud computer. Grok Bot is the outlier: all of your Bots share one cloud computer — xAI's docs say explicitly not to treat separate Bots as a security boundary. This changes how you compartmentalize work (Module 3).

2. Approvals — how firmly does it stop before risky actions? Muse routes everything through a separate Sentinel agent that must approve before anything reaches the internet. Dots uses a permission model plus Auto-review. Grok Bot uses Auto Review rules, with a catch: approvals for unattended work expire after about 10 minutes.

3. Cost — what's the pricing shape? Muse is free for most use, with $20 and $100 tiers. Dots has no free tier (one dot comes with the ~$100/mo ChatGPT Pro plan). Grok Bot is bundled into paid Grok/SuperGrok tiers. Background agents bill against usage or an allowance, so how often and how hard they work drives the bill (Module 2).

4. Availability — can you even use it where you are? Muse launched US-only. Dots is not available in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK at launch. Grok Bot follows the Grok/X footprint.

Here's the payoff: answer these four for your situation and the choice usually makes itself — before you've thought about a single benchmark. A privacy-conscious US shopper leans Muse; a ChatGPT power user leans Dots; someone who wants scheduled routines leans Grok Bot. We'll return to this decision in the final module.