On Friday evening, OpenAI launched ChatGPT Wallet – a wallet specifically designed for making payments to intelligent agents.
What it addresses is a very specific issue: While the agents within ChatGPT – officially referred to as “dots” – are already capable of helping you compare prices, choose clothes, or book hotels, when it comes to the actual process of making a payment, someone still has to enter your credit card information. Not many people would feel comfortable allowing AI to have access to their credit card details and use them to conduct transactions online.
In this case, American Express, MasterCard, and Visa were all involved. You only need to link your card once; thereafter, whenever you make a payment, the card organizations will generate a temporary substitute card number for that particular transaction. Both the smart system and the merchants will receive this “replacement card number” – the actual card number will never be revealed at any point in the process.
Before each payment is made, you will see the product details, the total price, and which card will be used for the transaction. You can then confirm the payment using Face ID or your fingerprint. The original points associated with your credit card, as well as the protections regarding dispute resolutions and refunds, will remain unchanged.
The requirements are also quite stringent: this service is only available to Pro subscribers in the United States who are at least 18 years old, and the credit cards used must be issued in the United States. OpenAI has stated that it will not charge any commission from these transactions in the initial phase of implementation.
The phrase “no commission” deserves careful consideration. If intelligent shopping systems truly become a reality, the party responsible for the payment process will have the power to determine where the money is directed—and this advantage far outweighs any potential fee associated with transaction processing.
Domestic users cannot make use of this feature for the time being. However, if Alipay and WeChat also adopt intelligent payment systems, it is very likely that they will follow the same approach: “proxy credentials + transaction-by-transaction confirmation.” This design essentially represents the standard solution that minimizes risks to the greatest extent possible.