Lab

AI news brief: GPT-6 Astra brings a testing upgrade to Cognition’s AI coding assistant Devin, with the core goal of improving Devin’s ability to verify the correctness of its own generated code, so engineers can spend less time on manual code review and ship faster. The update focuses on letting Devin more effectively test software functionality after finishing a dev task and actually prove the code works, instead of just producing code and handing it off for human review.

AI news brief: Perplexity has rolled out the Astra model in production to draft communications, modify software code, and monitor the health of live systems. Compared to the models it used before, Astra needs noticeably less human check-in and approval to do these jobs, meaning the system can run autonomously for longer stretches without constantly stopping for people to review progress or sign off on the next step.

AI News Brief: OpenAI shared the evolution of its storage system Habitat, explaining how it grew from a single Python library into a globally distributed storage platform supporting 1 billion ChatGPT users and handling 22 million requests per second. See the original article for full details.

AI News Brief: Amid a surge in run-related searches, Google Search recently rolled out three AI-powered features to help runners train. This year, searches for ‘running clubs,’ ‘how to choose running shoes,’ and ‘marathon training plans’ have hit all-time highs. First, Search’s AI Mode can help build personalized training plans — through the Canvas tool in the ‘+’ menu, users can ask the system to build a schedule based on their running experience and location…

AI News Brief: OpenAI has launched ‘ChatGPT for Financial Services,’ targeting finance industry clients by combining built-in financial data with the GPT-6 Astra model for research analysis, financial modeling, and producing client-ready report materials. This lets finance professionals handle everything from data lookup to model calculations to final deliverables on one platform, skipping the back-and-forth between multiple tools…

AI News Flash: GPT-Live-1 is OpenAI’s new voice API model that lets developers build natural full-duplex voice conversation experiences in their own apps — meaning users and the AI can talk at the same time and interrupt each other anytime, without waiting for one side to finish before responding, much closer to the rhythm of real human conversation. This update strengthens the model’s instruction-following ability, so the AI can more accurately understand and execute users’ specific requests during voice interactions.

AI News Brief: OpenAI has partnered with the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to announce expanded AI access for government agencies, offering preferential terms to eligible federal, state, local, and tribal government bodies. This includes $0 license fees — meaning agencies can get usage licenses for free — a 50% discount on standard usage fees, and enhanced cybersecurity defense support.

AI News Brief: ASE’s new demand-detection system rolls out a ‘Data agent’ feature integrated into ChatGPT Work (the enterprise plan), letting users connect to company data, surface insights, and build interactive dashboards using natural language. It’s positioned as an AI-powered data analysis assistant that lets non-technical employees query data directly in plain language, replacing the old workflow of relying on data analysts to write queries or build reports.

AI News Flash: OpenAI has launched GPT-6 Astra, positioned as its most powerful model yet for business use cases, headlined by advanced reasoning, computer use capabilities, and a significant boost in writing and design judgment. The model is built with real-world business scenarios in mind, sharpening its ability to reason through and break down complex tasks so it can handle workflows that require multi-step logical judgment. Its computer use capability…

AI news brief: OpenAI Chief Global Affairs Officer Chris Lehane argues that as AI capabilities keep advancing, corresponding safety verification, shared standards, and concrete policy action need to keep pace, and that we should seize the current policy-making ‘window of opportunity’ to act now. The source summary is fairly brief and doesn’t include specific mechanisms, data, or policy details — see the original link for more.