OpenAI just released a new model called Astra today.
By alliekmiller · September 4, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
OpenAI just released a new model called Astra today.
I had early access so let me tell you what I want EVERY business professional to know about it:
1. Computer use and browser use are just incredible. I'm confident that pretty much any stable workflow done on a computer can be at least partially done by AI (and yes, I realize that description has a lot of hedging but I'm sure there are edge cases I didn't explore). It's just so so good. Imagine you were a creepy boss and recorded your screen for 7 straight days...what would you have AI do that you've been doing? Can you challenge yourself to go mouse-free for a day?
2. Still failed my complex word play challenges. No model has passed it yet.
3. Didn't piss me off. I cannot overemphasize this enough. I have been screaming at Claude more and more these last few weeks because of its convoluted extremely technical responses sometimes (so much so, that I adapted a new /wtf skill to deal with it AND as a ratio of my overall AI work, Codex has shot up - I'm using Claude Code desktop app less and less). I used to say Claude was a better writer and I no longer say that.
4. Codex is a better daily driver.
5. I'm not worried about tokens like I am with the Fable family (important to note that I'm also not really worried about tokens with Opus).
6. Others tested a lot around 3D and animations. I didn't, but they seem v happy with the results. I watched their results and wasn't as stunned, but that is OK. I don't want to see worlds from scratch, I want to see accurate worlds from reference points. I know AI can generate from scratch, but that's not what most work starts as.
7. Would probably still go to Fable 5.1 for "mega architect build" type asks.
I shall continue to hammer the hell out of it and provide business takeaways.