GPT-6 Astra: OpenAI Raises the AGI Question as EVMbench Measures Exploit Capability

OpenAI launched GPT-6 Astra on September 3, 2026, its first model classified as “Critical” in cybersecurity: according to the company, it discovers unknown vulnerabilities and writes the corresponding exploit without human guidance at each step. Its president Greg Brockman sees it as a possible milestone towards general artificial intelligence. For crypto, the stake is not theoretical, and it is already quantified. As early as February 2026, the EVMbench benchmark, published by OpenAI with Paradigm and OtterSec, measured this capability on smart contracts: the best agent exploited 72.2% of the tested vulnerabilities. AGI remains a question of definition; the offensive capability on code that secures billions of dollars, however, is measured, dated, and published. In brief GPT-6 Astra marks a new milestone in cybersecurity automation. On EVMbench, the best agents already exploit 72.2% of the tested flaws. For crypto, the stake becomes concrete: better detect vulnerabilities before attackers. What OpenAI really announced Astra is deployed in stages: first organizations in the Daybreak cybersecurity program, then paid ChatGPT offers (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise), the API, and Amazon Web Services. OpenAI claims the best scores on FrontierMath Tier 4, ARC-AGI-3, and TerminalBench-4.0, and a perfect score on ExploitBench, a test for developing exploits from known vulnerabilities. In a modified version of this test, the model discovered and exploited two zero-day flaws, i.e., vulnerabilities still unknown to developers and therefore unpatched. The model is based on a technique described by specialized press as “recurrent depth”: data passes multiple times through the same layers of the network, which moves part of the reasoning out of the readable chain of thought. OpenAI has not confirmed implementation details. Security researchers, including those from Redwood Research, noted that this opacity complicates monitoring the model. Brockman presented it as “the smartest and most aligned” product made by the company. Why the word “AGI” does not hold up against OpenAI’s definition OpenAI’s charter defines AGI as a system that exceeds human performance on most economically useful tasks. The company has not demonstrated that Astra crosses this threshold, and several of its most cited results depend as much on the agent infrastructure built around the model as on the model itself. On ARC-AGI-3, OpenAI had already shown that system architecture choices could significantly raise the score without touching the model: the test evaluates the whole, not just the brain alone. Reservations also come from within. Brockman acknowledged that crossing the threshold depends entirely on the chosen metric and left the reader to judge. Sam Altman himself called AGI a poorly defined marketing term. On FrontierMath, on which Astra claims 97.6% at Tier 4, the organization administering the test, Epoch AI, indicates that OpenAI funded its development and has exclusive access to part of the problem set.