Last Week in AI Last Week in AI

#257 - GPT 6 Astra, AI Extinction, Security Incidents

Sep 24, 2026 · 1h 34m

Summary

Hosts Andrii Verikov and Jeremy Harris discuss the release of GPT-6 Astra, analyzing its advanced capabilities, loop transformer architecture, and controversial alignment claims. They also cover Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s call to pace frontier AI development, debating the strategic risks of slowing down in the face of China’s rapid progress. The episode addresses the siloed nature of AI national security efforts and the growing tension between public safety messaging and the reality of model misalignment.

Topics discussed

Intro, host updates, and discussion on episode format Sponsorships for Box and Factor meals GPT-5.6 Astra release and computer use capabilities Model architecture, pre-training vs test-time compute Cyber safety evals and alignment skepticism Anthropic's jailbroken model and alignment limits Super alignment definition and model pricing Dario Amodei's blog post on China and AI safety Criticism of effective altruism and AI funding Meta's Muse Spark and AI agent integration Sponsorships for ODSC and Progressive Insurance Congressional calls for AI regulation and safety bills Political polarization and US-China AI competition White House internal dynamics and export controls OpenAI incident reporting and rogue AI marketing Analysis of model misalignment and reward hacking Security researchers hack OpenAI via cloud flaws Cyber defense, model theft risks, and closing thoughts
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