LessWrong posts by zvi · Saturday · 1 hr 14 min

“GPT-6-Astra Can Do Ambitious Things” by Zvi

Astra is an excellent model. The jump from Sol to Astra is larger than the jump from Fable 5 to Fable 5.1. This is a big deal. Astra is the best model for what one would broadly call ‘ambitious projects,’ and likely has the highest raw intelligence factor of any model. These are the largest jumps. It is amazing at doing things in 3D, or anything involving games. Astra also excels at computer use, and at subagent coordination. Many benchmarks show dramatic jumps from all previous models. Where Astra is good, it can be in a league of its own. That does not mean Astra is in its own league across the board. Fable 5.1 is still a Claude. Astra is still a GPT. If you have a strong preference for one over the other, that still applies. For many purposes, especially involving back-and-forth discussions, Fable 5.1 is still my top choice. Fable remains my primary editor. If you want the best answer to your questions, you should ask both models. Regular coding is getting less of a focus. Astra is not a quantum leap there, but of course it is very good [...] --- Outline: (02:34) Meanwhile (04:38) The Official Pitch (13:08) Our Price Cheap (14:06) Unnecessary Overstatement (15:53) Paced Rollout (16:32) Official Benchmarks (22:37) Other People's Benchmarks (30:47) Thinking, Fast Without Slow (34:25) How Dare You, Sir (36:36) PoetryBench (37:54) In 3D (39:14) Time to Think (39:59) I'm Putting Together a Team (41:02) Reviews and Essays (41:37) Computer Use (42:47) Positive Reactions (50:53) AGI (54:20) Astra Can Do The Math (57:27) Astra Can Code (59:35) I Came to (Change the) Game (01:02:37) Astra Does Other Cool Things (01:03:31) Astra Never Quits Except When It Does (01:05:26) Negative Reactions (01:07:45) Stop It With the Hedging (01:08:57) Personality Clash (01:09:53) Revealed Preference (01:12:03) Dual Wielding The original text contained 1 footnote which was omitted from this narration. --- First published: September 12th, 2026 Source: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/snaKjCwazKcRiS4qs/gpt-6-astra-can-do-ambitious-things --- Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO. --- Images from the article: Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try Pocket Casts, or another podcast app.

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Astra is an excellent model. The jump from Sol to Astra is larger than the jump from Fable 5 to Fable 5.1. This is a big deal.

Astra is the best model for what one would broadly call ‘ambitious projects,’ and likely has the highest raw intelligence factor of any model. These are the largest jumps.

It is amazing at doing things in 3D, or anything involving games. Astra also excels at computer use, and at subagent coordination.

Many benchmarks show dramatic jumps from all previous models. Where Astra is good, it can be in a league of its own.

That does not mean Astra is in its own league across the board. Fable 5.1 is still a Claude. Astra is still a GPT. If you have a strong preference for one over the other, that still applies. For many purposes, especially involving back-and-forth discussions, Fable 5.1 is still my top choice. Fable remains my primary editor.

If you want the best answer to your questions, you should ask both models.

Regular coding is getting less of a focus. Astra is not a quantum leap there, but of course it is very good [...]

---

Outline:

(02:34) Meanwhile

(04:38) The Official Pitch

(13:08) Our Price Cheap

(14:06) Unnecessary Overstatement

(15:53) Paced Rollout

(16:32) Official Benchmarks

(22:37) Other People's Benchmarks

(30:47) Thinking, Fast Without Slow