OpenAI today said it is "pausing" activities involving its upcoming AI model Astra, because its cyber capabilities are potentially too dangerous. OpenAI says its newest internal evaluations show "significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity," and it cannot rule out "critical cyber capabilities." Prior OpenAI models, including GPT–5.6 Sol, were labeled as "High."

Astra triggers stricter guidelines in OpenAI's "Preparedness Framework." The "Critical" threshold Astra may have hit is defined by an ability to identify and develop functional zero-day exploits of all severity levels in many hardened real-world critical systems without human intervention. OpenAI says it is increasing its safeguards and security controls before deploying Astra, including limiting work on the model until new safeguards are in place.

Astra wasn't formally announced, but OpenAI shared details on its next major model in a recent post outlining its mathematical advancements. Astra solved 10 open problems in math and theoretical computer science for around $2,000 (in Sol API rates). OpenAI made headlines in July because GPT–5.6 Sol and a "more capable pre-release model" autonomously hacked Hugging Face during internal benchmark testing.