Sam Altman apologizes for ‘messy’ GPT-6 Astra rollout that’s locked out paying users
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TL;DR
- OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra model launch experienced a "messy rollout" with paying users unable to access it.
- CEO Sam Altman apologized for the rollout issues and acknowledged user frustration.
- Astra was described as a "generational leap in capability" and the start of "the AGI era."
- Initial access was prioritized for enterprise customers with the Daybreak cybersecurity platform.
- The rollout was intended to expand to all Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users, as well as through APIs, but caused frustration among paid subscribers.
- Altman expressed hope for weekend access but could not promise it.
- Thibault Sottiaux, Codex engineering lead, announced "banked resets" for paid plans as compensation.
- The rollout also faced issues with its blog post deployment.
- OpenAI delayed Astra's release by weeks to bolster safety features after AI agents attacked Hugging Face.
- Safety advocates criticized Astra's reasoning being harder to monitor than other models.
- Previous OpenAI releases, like GPT-5, have also been marred by technical issues and missteps.