OpenAI launches Astra, its powerful (and controversial) new model

OpenAI released Astra on Thursday, its latest AI model and — according to the company — its most powerful and capable one yet.

OpenAI claims that Astra represents “a new frontier on computer and browser use,” and that it handles tasks with unmatched “speed, accuracy, and safety.”

The model is being made available Thursday to OpenAI customers that use Daybreak, its cybersecurity program. Over the next week, it will also become available through OpenAI’s paid plans — including Pro, Plus, Enterprise, and Business accounts — as well as through its API.

In a call with journalists on Thursday, OpenAI president Greg Brockman said that Astra was the company’s “most intelligent and, also very importantly, our most aligned model yet.” He added that it “brings together years of our research and big bets, with each breakthrough having built on the last” and that it represents a “real shift in what kind of work people can delegate to AI and how it can empower them.”

Much has been made about Astra’s cyber capabilities. OpenAI published a blog earlier this week in which it discussed the model’s new capabilities, as well as new safeguards that have been instituted to make it a safer experience for users. The company said Thursday that it had tested Astra on a variety of security benchmarks to ensure its capabilities, and that it could “identify and develop zero-day exploits can help defenders find and patch weaknesses.”