GPT-6 Astra Users Say OpenAI's Newest Model Got Dumber. It Happened Before, Too

In brief

• Astra "nerf" complaints are flooding X just a week after launch.
• Previously, users found the writing quality issue existed at launch.
• OpenAI's last model, Sol, saw the same backlash in July.

A week ago, GPT-6 Astra was rebuilding Manhattan street by street inside a game engine, wowing users left and right with its capabilities. This week, the same crowd is posting screenshots asking OpenAI what happened to their model.

"Astra feels significantly dumber for me today," the popular pseudonymous developer synthwavedd posted on X. "Was only a matter of time before The Post-Launch Lobotomy. Shame."

It's a familiar refrain, with AI users accustomed to their favorite chatbots and agents suddenly feeling like they've been "nerfed." Most of the time there are reasonable explanations for the perceived drop in performance from these models. But when enough people start saying the same thing at the same time, it's worth examining what's going on. And social media at the moment is replete with examples of users quickly souring on GPT-6 Astra.

Developer Pranjal Paliwal, who previously had praised the model, went back and actually read the code Astra had written him. He did not like what he found.