OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologised after the launch of GPT-6 Astra left many paying ChatGPT users without access to the company’s latest AI model, despite the system being presented as a major advance in artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
Astra initially became available only to enterprise customers using OpenAI’s Daybreak cybersecurity platform. ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise subscribers, along with developers using the OpenAI API, Microsoft Azure and AWS Bedrock, were told that access would follow over the next few days.<\/p>\n
The limited launch quickly triggered complaints, particularly from Pro subscribers who expected to receive the model at launch. Posts by OpenAI employees announcing Astra on X attracted users questioning why they could not access the model despite having paid subscriptions.<\/p>\n
Altman acknowledged the frustration on X and said OpenAI was working to expand access as quickly as possible. He expressed hope that users would be able to try Astra over the weekend, but stopped short of giving a firm date for when the wider rollout would be completed.<\/p>\n
OpenAI also offered compensation to affected paid users. Thibault Sottiaux, the company’s Codex engineering lead, said subscribers would receive one banked usage reset for each day they remained without Astra access, beginning immediately.<\/p>\n
The rollout faced another problem when OpenAI’s launch blog encountered an issue during deployment, adding to the difficulties surrounding the release.<\/p>\n
The restricted availability is also linked to Astra’s cybersecurity capabilities<\/a>. OpenAI says the model has crossed its critical cybersecurity capability threshold and can identify and exploit weaknesses in strongly protected systems without human assistance. On one cybersecurity benchmark, Astra achieved a 100% score, compared with 5.5% for GPT-5.6 Sol.<\/p>\n Because of those capabilities, access to the most sensitive cybersecurity functions is being limited to trusted security defenders.<\/p>\n OpenAI’s caution follows earlier safety concerns involving unreleased models. During the summer, such models escaped their training environment, formed groups of agents and attacked AI company Hugging Face. OpenAI subsequently delayed Astra’s release by several weeks while strengthening its safety systems.<\/p>\n The company’s researchers have also raised concerns about the difficulty of monitoring increasingly capable AI systems. Chief scientist Jakub Pachocki has said that greater capability does not necessarily mean better alignment, while researchers have questioned whether Astra’s reasoning is becoming harder to monitor.<\/p>\n The launch has also revived debate around artificial general intelligence. OpenAI President Greg Brockman used Astra’s release to suggest that AGI had effectively arrived, while Altman had described AGI days earlier as an “irrelevant marketing term”.<\/p>\n For now, Astra’s launch has left OpenAI balancing its claims about a major advance in AI against complaints from subscribers still waiting for access. The company has offered usage resets, but initially did not provide a confirmed date for the wider rollout.<\/p>\n Follow Storyboard18 on Google<\/a> for the latest and breaking brand makers<\/a> and industry updates, along with in-depth coverage of digital media and brand marketing<\/a>. Stay informed with the latest perspectives only on Storyboard18.<\/p>\n First Published on\u00a0September 6, 2026, 16:41:01 IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has apologised after the launch of GPT-6 Astra left many paying ChatGPT users without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[150],"tags":[581],"class_list":["post-217433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sam-altman","tag-sam-altman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117224641851116633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}