AI news, distilled.

Perplexity trusts GPT-6 Astra with end-to-end systems

Perplexity uses Astra to write communications, change software, and monitor production systems, and checks in much less frequently than with earlier models.

Cognition helps Devin test its own work with GPT‑6 Astra

GPT‑6 Astra improves Devin’s ability to test software and show that it works, with the goal of helping engineers review less code and ship more.

Rapidly scaling online storage to serve over 1 billion ChatGPT users

Learn how OpenAI evolved Habitat from a Python library into a globally distributed storage platform serving 1 billion ChatGPT users and 22M requests per second.

How a researcher uses Codex and ChatGPT to search for new antimicrobial molecules

César de la Fuente’s lab uses Codex and ChatGPT to search living and extinct genomes for antimicrobial candidates to fight drug-resistant infections.

Now everyone can put data to work

Meet the Data agent in ChatGPT Work. Connect company data, uncover insights, and build interactive dashboards with AI using natural language.

Expanding AI access and cyber defense for federal, state, local, and tribal governments

OpenAI and GSA will offer eligible federal, state, local, and tribal governments $0 license fees, 50% off usage, and expanded cyber defense support.

Introducing ChatGPT for Financial Services

Introducing ChatGPT for Financial Services, combining built-in financial data and GPT-6 Astra for research, modeling, and client-ready materials.

Rebuilding AUTOMATIC1111 with Gradio Workflow

Async GRPO with LoRA across HF Jobs: a bucket, a proxy, and no NCCL

Introducing the Agents API

Build and launch cloud agents with the Agents API, a managed service powered by the Codex harness for orchestration, long-running sessions, and tool use.

Build more natural voice experiences with GPT‑Live‑1 in the API

GPT‑Live‑1 brings natural, full-duplex voice conversations to the API, with stronger instruction following, custom voices, and telephony support.

Paul Christiano joins OpenAI Foundation Board

Paul Christiano joins the OpenAI Foundation Board and its Safety and Security Committee, bringing experience in AI alignment, safety, and standards.

The AI policy window is open. We need to act.

Chris Lehane argues that stronger AI capabilities require stronger safety evidence, shared standards, and durable policy action while the policy window remains open.

GPT-6 Astra: The next generation in intelligence for work

Meet GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI’s most capable model for business, with advanced reasoning, computer use, and stronger writing and design judgment.

AlphaGenome Atlas: A predictive map of every possible DNA letter change in the human genome

AlphaGenome Atlas maps the molecular effects of 9 billion single-letter DNA variants across the human genome.

'Welcome to the AGI era': OpenAI launches GPT-6 Astra

The rumors were true, all of them (and then some): OpenAI today is releasing GPT-6 Astra, a new frontier model that the company says likely marks the onset of artificial generalized intelligence (AGI), its long sought goal of "highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work." In a closed a press briefing earlier today, OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman offered an unusually direct formulation of that message, ending the session with: “Welcome to th…

China-linked hackers backdoored executives' laptops via USB, exploiting a fix companies had but weren't using

A Chinese state-linked hacking group compromised executive laptops at an agricultural industry conference on Hainan Island this spring — not through phishing or a network breach, but by breaking into hotel rooms and booting the machines from a USB stick while the executives were at dinner. CrowdStrike, which tracks the group as OVERCAST PANDA, disclosed the campaign in its 2026 Threat Hunting Report and detailed the operation's timeline in an interview with VentureBeat at Fal.Con 2026: an intru…

Meta says Muse Spark 1.3 has frontier performance — but its best results come from a model developers can’t broadly use yet

Meta’s newest AI model Muse Spark 1.3, unveiled yesterday, is faster and more performant on third-party benchmarks than its predecessor — with a caveat. "Muse Spark 1.3 is rolling out today with frontier performance almost too cheap to meter," Meta co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on X, calling it Meta’s “biggest jump” yet in coding and agentic work. There is substance behind both parts of that claim. Muse Spark 1.3 makes significant gains over last month’s 1.2 release, particularly on…

Introducing WeatherNext 3, our most advanced and accurate global weather AI model

Microsoft AI’s MAI-Transcribe-2 undercuts OpenAI, Google and ElevenLabs on price and speed

Microsoft AI on Thursday released MAI-Transcribe-2, a speech-recognition model the company says is faster, more accurate, and cheaper than anything OpenAI, Google, or ElevenLabs currently sells. Then it priced the thing at 10 cents per hour of audio. That figure deserves a pause. When Microsoft AI shipped the first model in this line just five months ago, it charged $0.36 an hour. Thursday's early-bird price cuts that by roughly 72%. For an enterprise processing 100,000 hours of call-center aud…