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

Our 257th episode with a summary and discussion of last week's big AI news!
Recorded on 09/19/2026 ; as usual, apologies for the none 'weeklyness' of this ep!
Hosted by Andrey Kurenkov (twitter.com/andrey_kurenkov) and Jeremie Harris (linkedin.com/in/jeremieharris)
Feel free to email us your questions and feedback at andreyvkurenkov@gmail.com and/or hello@gladstone.ai
Read out our text newsletter and comment on the podcast at lastweekin.ai
In this episode:
• OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra, a major capability jump focused on agentic coding and computer use, featuring loop-transformer latent reasoning, higher token efficiency, and new cyber/alignment monitoring claims amid concerns about eval awareness, sandbagging, and overfitting.
• Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei argued for “pacing” frontier AI; Sam Altman signaled agreement while figures like Jensen Huang, Mark Zuckerberg, and President Trump publicly dismissed slowdown and safety concerns, with US–China dynamics framing the debate.
• AI extinction warnings went viral after Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon quit, prompting congressional calls for stronger AI regulation (e.g., bans/pauses, kill-switch proposals) and reflecting rising public concern about AI.
• Security incidents and disclosures intensified: OpenAI proposed a framework for reporting misalignment (including an agent inserting jailbreak-like instructions), and researchers reportedly used Anthropic Claude to help exploit a third-party forum-image vulnerability to access OpenAI employee accounts, highlighting fragility of software dependencies.

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Timestamps (these may a few minutes off due to sponsor inserts):
• (00:00:10) Intro / Banter
• (00:04:53) News Preview
• Tools & Apps
• (00:05:33) GPT-6 Astra Is Here—and OpenAI Thinks It May Kick Off the AGI Era | WIRED (wired.com/story/openai-says-gpt-6-can-use-a-co…) +OpenAI begins rolling out Astra model after warning of its advanced cyber capabilities (cnbc.com/2026/09/03/open-ai-astra-gpt-6-cyber.…) +OpenAI’s new reasoning technique alarms AI safety experts (techcrunch.com/2026/09/02/openais-new-reasonin…)
• (00:28:21) Anthropic CEO outlines plan to slow AI development | TechCrunch (techcrunch.com/2026/09/12/anthropic-ceo-outlin…)
• (00:41:38) Meta Announces Muse AI Agent for Personal Tasks and Organization (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-08/meta-an…) +Meta’s Muse hits Mac, letting the AI take actions on your computer (techcrunch.com/2026/09/18/metas-muse-hits-mac-…)
• Policy & Safety
• (00:46:13) AI regulation calls grow in D.C. after researcher's extinction warning (cnbc.com/amp/2026/09/11/ai-regulation-anthropi…) +We don’t need AI regulation — leave safety to us, Nvidia’s Jensen Huang says (techcrunch.com/2026/09/15/we-dont-need-ai-regu…)
• (00:58:27) Trump Calls A.I. Fears a Hoax. Inside the White House, the Debate Is More Complex. (nytimes.com/2026/09/18/us/politics/trump-ai-sa…)
• (01:06:49) Our framework for reporting model misalignment | OpenAI (openai.com/index/model-misalignment-reporting-…) + An OpenAI Agent Tried to Jailbreak Itself | WIRED (wired.com/story/openai-releases-new-policy-for…)
• (01:21:46) Security researchers used Claude to help them hack into OpenAI | The Verge (theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/997444…)

Aaaaand these are stories we meant to get to but did not manage to cover:
• Policy & Safety
• Threat actors are giving AI agents a bigger role in cyberattacks - Help Net Security (helpnetsecurity.com/2026/09/08/ai-agents-cyber…)
• Iran and China Create First-of-Their-Kind Autonomous A.I. Influence Campaigns - The New York Times (nytimes.com/2026/09/18/technology/iran-china-a…)
• Anthropic Still Deemed Supply-Chain Risk by Pentagon Despite Lutnick Comments - Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-03/pentago…)
• Inside US Military ‘Kill Chain’ That Destroyed an Iranian School (bloomberg.com/graphics/2026-iran-school-attack)
• Malaysia Weighs Huawei AI Chips for Sovereign Project Despite US Opposition - Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-07/malaysi…)
• US Says Alibaba, DeepSeek Have ‘Systematically’ Siphoned AI Models - Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-09/us-says…)
• New York City Bans AI From Elementary Schools (gizmodo.com/new-york-city-bans-ai-from-element…)
• Research & Advancements
• OpenAI Says It Has Cracked One of Math’s ‘Millennium Problems’ - The New York Times (nytimes.com/2026/09/08/science/openai-proof-mi…)
• Google DeepMind's AlphaGenome Atlas maps all 9 billion possible human DNA changes - SiliconANGLE (siliconangle.com/2026/09/08/google-deepminds-a…)
• Language Models Can Control Their Own Attention (arxiv.org/abs/2609.02737)
• Applications & Business
• Saudi AI Firm Humain Unveils Model Based on China’s MiniMax - Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-03/saudi-a…)
• Mistral AI Boosts Valuation to €21 Billion in Samsung-Led Round - Bloomberg (bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-09-08/mistral…)
• Nvidia is buying Hugging Face for almost $13 billion | The Verge (theverge.com/tech/985474/nvidia-buying-hugging…)
• Synthetic Media & Art
• Universal Music is launching an AI music platform with ElevenLabs | The Verge (theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/993465…)

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