OpenAI says GPT-6 Astra designed a hardware device from scratch in under a week
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OpenAI reports that its GPT-6 Astra model successfully designed a hardware device from scratch in under a week. The project involved creating an enclosure, PCB layout with component selection, firmware, and a user interface for a tool that allows users to interact with the Codex coding agent. A contract manufacturer produced a small batch of prototypes in less than a month, although several revision rounds were necessary because the AI did not always account for manufacturing constraints and tolerances. OpenAI intends to use this data to improve future models. In terms of performance metrics, a newer internal model achieved a score of 0.875 on the BenchCAD 2.0 benchmark, significantly outperforming GPT-6 Astra's highest reasoning level score of 0.594. Additionally, OpenAI's hardware teams are increasingly using Codex and ChatGPT for CAD models and simulations, with token usage growing 23 times since February. The company is also reportedly developing its own hardware device, described as something between an AI speaker and a smartphone.
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