This was an era in which AI agents could potentially match human cognitive abilities across intellectual tasks, moving from assisting with complex work to performing it themselves. The company touted Astra as its most intelligent and aligned model yet. AI company’s latest model, on September 3.
“Welcome to the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) era,” were the words of OpenAI president Greg Brockman following the launch of GPT-6 Astra, the U.S.
OpenAI made the announcement of the cancellation a day before its annual DevDay conference in San Francisco, saying internal testing revealed that the model did not meet its safety standards. A launch video showed how Astra set a new frontier in computer use, and achieved advanced capabilities in mathematics, coding, software engineering, cybersecurity, science, and professional work. It demonstrated the ability to develop 3D designs and games using Blender or route a manufacturable printed circuit board (PCB) layout in KiCad – all from a prompt. Ms. Jain particularly mentioned how the system fell short of staying within its scope and authorisation, and in communicating to the user what work it had performed.
However, on September 28, The Wall Street Journal broke the news of OpenAI scrapping the launch of GPT-6.1 Astra — an update to GPT-6 — that was slated for an October launch, citing “safety concerns”. Head of safety systems at OpenAI, GPT-6.1 “didn’t quite meet the bar”, according to Saachi Jain.
