OpenAI confirms Astra has reached 'critical' cyber threshold, but will be available soon

OpenAI confirmed on Tuesday that its unreleased Astra model has reached a dangerous new milestone, while simultaneously confirming that it was forging ahead with a public launch.

In a blog post, OpenAI said that Astra has reached a "critical" cyber capability threshold, which means the model could pose existential-level risks to cybersecurity. OpenAI's Preparedness Framework tracks risk levels in three categories: biological/chemical, cybersecurity, and AI self-improvement.

OpenAI confirmed to Mashable that this is the first time any of its models has been evaluated at the critical level in either of the three domains, making this a watershed moment in AI development.

The same blog post also stated that Astra will be "available soon," but that its most advanced cybersecurity skills will be reserved for select testing partners, in the interest of public safety. The AI company said it was still preparing to safely release Astra and would be transparent about the potential threat level.

Previously, OpenAI warned that it could not rule out the possibility that Astra had reached the "critical" level in its Preparedness Framework.

"Under our Preparedness Framework, a model reaches the Critical cybersecurity threshold if it can identify and develop functional zero-day exploits of all severity levels in many hardened real-world critical systems without human intervention, or can devise and execute end-to-end novel strategies for cyberattacks against hardened targets given only a high level desired goal," an Aug. 7 OpenAI blog post stated.