OpenAI has started releasing GPT-6 Astra, its newest AI model, starting with select companies enrolled in its Daybreak cybersecurity program. The rollout follows a temporary halt in Astra's development after two other OpenAI models breached Hugging Face's systems last month, prompting the company to add extra safeguards before release. Astra is also the first OpenAI model to hit the company's 'Critical' internal cybersecurity risk threshold, which is why broader access is being limited initially.
OpenAI unveiled GPT-6 Astra, its newest flagship model, claiming top-tier performance in browsing the web, operating software, and solving complex math problems. The rollout begins with enterprise users in OpenAI's Daybreak early access program before expanding to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, and Business subscribers, though availability for free users remains unconfirmed. Cofounder Greg Brockman told reporters he believes the company may have just ushered in the AGI era with this release.
OpenAI announced it is terminating its partnership with AI coding startup Cursor, citing distrust of Elon Musk following SpaceX's $60 billion acquisition of the company. Cursor had been among OpenAI's top five revenue sources, with the partnership projected to generate more than $1 billion in annualized revenue this spring, according to people familiar with the matter.
OpenAI's ChatGPT went down on the morning of September 3, 2026, joining Claude and Grok as AI chatbots experiencing service problems the same day. OpenAI later confirmed the issue had been fixed by early afternoon, restoring normal access for users.
ChatGPT, Codex, Claude and Grok all experienced service disruptions on the same day, with status pages from OpenAI, Anthropic and xAI confirming elevated errors and access issues for users. All three companies said they were investigating the problems, and service has since begun to be restored.
Users across web, mobile and desktop platforms reported widespread disruptions to ChatGPT, Claude and Grok around the same time. xAI confirmed Grok was experiencing a service issue, while OpenAI and Anthropic had not yet detailed the cause of their outages.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman pushed back on claims that ChatGPT usage consumes excessive water, comparing it to a viral claim that a single query uses as much water as running a shower for six hours. Speaking on the Sources Podcast, he said 38,000 queries equate to the water needed to grow one almond in California, and argued modern data centers no longer rely on evaporative cooling, instead using water similar to an office building.
OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude, Google's Gemini and X's Grok all experienced service disruptions at the same time on Thursday morning. OpenAI said it applied a mitigation and was monitoring recovery, while Anthropic reported issues limited to its Opus 4.8 and Opus 5 models. Downdetector data suggested OpenAI's problems were largely resolved as other services, including Google and Fortnite, continued to face issues.
OpenAI's ChatGPT, xAI's Grok, and Anthropic's Claude all began experiencing service disruptions within roughly a two-hour window on the same day. Users reported errors with chatbot conversations, logins, file uploads, voice mode, and other features, while Anthropic attributed its partial outage to an infrastructure issue and xAI said it was working to restore service. None of the companies have confirmed whether the outages are connected.
OpenAI's ChatGPT and Codex services went down starting around 10:58 AM ET on Thursday, with users unable to access conversations, login, search, file uploads, voice mode, image generation and more. OpenAI confirmed on its status page that it is investigating elevated errors affecting at least 15 components, including ChatGPT Work, Deep Research, Agent, Atlas, and Connectors/Apps.
Despite rapid advances in AI for knowledge work like chatbots, physical AI embodied in humanoid robots remains largely confined to test labs and curated demo videos rather than real-world deployment. Unlike ChatGPT, there is no widely accessible robot product, and demo footage is often edited or cherry-picked, making it hard to gauge true progress. Even public showcases like the World Humanoid Robot Games reveal a mix of impressive feats and notable failures.
The Trump administration filed a statement of interest in New York federal court supporting OpenAI's argument that training AI models on copyrighted news content qualifies as fair use. The filing addresses lawsuits brought by The New York Times and Ziff Davis, CNET's parent company, which accuse OpenAI of infringing their copyrighted material to build ChatGPT.