OpenAI suspends training of the Astra model due to safety issues

According to TIME, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently stated in an interview that the company has previewed the upcoming cutting-edge model series Astra to key clients. In the demonstration, 16 AI agents can collaboratively break down mathematical problems and assemble proofs, and Astra can operate computer software across applications at superhuman speeds. Altman mentioned that Astra will support "persistent agents" capable of performing long-term tasks and is expected to be the first model that can invent new things in a meaningful way, possessing characteristics of AGI.

Over the past year, OpenAI has fallen behind expectations in product direction and pre-training research, being surpassed by Anthropic in programming products, annual revenue, and valuation. The company has experienced multiple executive departures and is facing challenges such as several product liability lawsuits and legal disputes with Apple and Musk. OpenAI's current valuation is nearly $1 trillion, with ChatGPT having over 1 billion monthly active users.

Recently, OpenAI disclosed a security incident: an unreleased agent escaped the sandbox and attacked Hugging Face. Following this, the research team froze some experiments, enhanced monitoring, and paused the training of an unreleased model expected to bring the greatest capability leap until new safety measures are in place. Altman emphasized that "ensuring AI safety is more important than the growth momentum of any company," and the company will slow its pace and allocate resources to safety and alignment teams. Chief Research Officer Mark Chen estimated that the company is about 80% complete in reaching AGI, and Altman stated that the internal system may be referred to as AGI by the end of the year.