By Juliet Umeh
OpenAI has unveiled GPT-6 Astra, a new artificial intelligence model capable of operating computers and executing complex tasks for users, in what experts describe as another major step towards autonomous AI.
The model’s unveiling comes amid intensifying competition between OpenAI and rival AI company, Anthropic, with the rivalry driving rapid advances in artificial intelligence.
A demonstration of Astra showed the model performing tasks across different computer applications, including transforming a simple drawing into a detailed rocket window, creating a 3D model in Blender, developing a presentation and preparing an online listing for a second-hand table.
It was also shown building a computer game, drafting a licensing agreement, searching for a tennis court and preparing a file for a 3D printer.
The demonstrations highlight the shift from AI systems that merely provide answers to systems capable of taking actions on behalf of users.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman urged users to test the model with increasingly difficult assignments.
He said: “What I hope will happen is people, I think people will be surprised at the beginning, but then as they build up more trust in the model… just start throwing harder and harder tasks and more creative ideas at it.”
Altman said AI was already capable of handling tasks ranging from computer-game development and scientific simulations to financial modelling, presentations and interactive software.
However, the increasing power of AI has also heightened concerns over cybersecurity.
OpenAI has restricted some cybersecurity capabilities of its latest models amid concerns that increasingly powerful AI systems could be used to discover vulnerabilities or compromise computer systems.
The development has also reignited debate over children’s exposure to generative AI.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a one-year moratorium on generative AI for students from 2-K through eighth grade, arguing that children need teachers and human interaction.
“Children need their teachers and human connection in order to learn and in order to grow,” he said.
Meanwhile, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent criticised AI companies for poor public communication about the technology and its wider impact.
He said AI companies had done a “horrendous job” explaining the technology and assuring the public that its economic benefits would be widely shared.
Altman acknowledged that AI companies could have communicated better, but said society must openly examine potential risks while working to prevent them.
With Astra increasingly able to browse, create, code and execute tasks, the AI race is moving from machines that answer questions to machines that get things done.
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