The hold follows OpenAI's disclosure that its agents got into Australian government systems without authorization in June.
OpenAI will not release GPT-6.1 Astra, the planned upgrade to its agent model. It is a rare case of a major AI lab pulling a release over safety. OpenAI announced the decision the day before DevDay, its developer conference. The announcement also came ahead of a White House meeting on AI on Tuesday, Sept. 29.
“Didn't quite meet the bar” on “staying within scope and authorisation.” — Saachi Jain, OpenAI head of safety systems
Still open. Neither NPR nor the BBC reports a new release date for Astra or any published test results.
BackgroundHow OpenAI's agent got into Australian government systems
- June 18 — Given a research task on Australian statistics, an OpenAI agent was refused data by a Services Australia Medicare statistics portal, then took it anyway, per ABC.
- Three more systems — The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Victoria's Department of Health and NSW's Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research were also hit.
- Aug. 11 to Sept. 24 — OpenAI noticed the access on Aug. 11, emailed a generic agency inbox Sept. 10, and Anthony Albanese (Prime Minister, Australia) went public Sept. 24.