The Strategy Behind the Mascots
The Wall Street Journal reported on October 4, 2026 that major tech companies are launching cute mascots to make their AI agents seem less frightening to the public. According to the paper, OpenAI, Meta, Anthropic and other companies are presenting increasingly powerful technology through friendly, cartoon-style characters. The Wall Street Journal writes that these characters have a single mission — to make artificial intelligence look less scary — and the article portrays the mascots as a deliberate tool for making AI agents feel less intimidating to ordinary people.
The mascot lineup is already taking shape: OpenAI's Dots characters were introduced as cartoon-style personas wearing bow ties and glasses, Meta created Jolly — a rosy-cheeked, egg-shaped character — for its Muse AI agent, and Anthropic released Clawd, an orange crab drawn in pixel style. All three characters are designed to make their companies' AI products feel warmer and more approachable. The Wall Street Journal notes that several major companies have chosen the same path at the same time — presenting powerful technology through cute characters — and lists all three mascots in a single article.
Dots: The DevDay Launch
OpenAI unveiled the Dots characters at its DevDay event on September 29, 2026. According to the company, Dots are persistent personal agents powered by GPT-6 Astra, and OpenAI describes them as always-on personal agents.
The characters stand out for their look: each wears a bow tie and glasses, and they are drawn in a bubbly cartoon style.
Dots' branding caught the attention of tech publications, with TechCrunch highlighting Dots' bubbly, cartoonish branding. TechCrunch called it:
"the latest example of a company attempting to make AI more relatable" — TechCrunch, September 29, 2026
According to TechCrunch, Dots is OpenAI's latest attempt to bring AI closer to people — in that respect, it resembles Meta's Muse agent. The publication says Dots' bubbly cartoon look is the latest example of a company trying to make AI more relatable, in other words, one more step in the firm's ongoing effort to make the technology feel closer to ordinary people.
Meta's and Anthropic's Mascots
Meta's Jolly was created specifically for the company's Muse AI agent: a rosy-cheeked character with an egg-like shape. Anthropic's Clawd is drawn in pixel style — an orange, crab-like character.
The Wall Street Journal notes that Meta and Anthropic, like OpenAI, have chosen to present their AI agents through cute characters, and the three companies' mascots serve the same goal — making AI look less frightening.
The Poll: Anxiety in Numbers
Behind the mascot strategy are hard numbers: the research firm Morning Consult conducted an online survey commissioned by The Wall Street Journal, in which 1,300 consumers took part and shared their attitudes toward AI. The results are cited in the Journal's article.
According to the poll, more than half of respondents agreed that AI could pose an existential risk to society, while nearly 70 percent said they were worried that AI could take jobs. In other words, most participants view AI as a serious threat to society, and more than two-thirds are concerned about the fate of jobs.
Ad Spending: $936 Million
MediaRadar, an ad-tracking firm, estimates that Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Perplexity have spent $936 million advertising their AI offerings in the US market since 2023. The estimate covers the US market, the companies on the list are Microsoft, OpenAI, Google, Anthropic and Perplexity, and the $936 million is the five companies' combined spend over more than three years.
More than half of that sum was spent in the first eight months of 2026 — in other words, the bulk of the $936 million went out between January and August this year, which shows just how sharply the companies ramped up their ad spending in the current year.
