OpenAI’s newest and most powerful model, GPT-6 Astra,
is out, and one of its hallmark features is called “computer use,” in which the model aims to navigate a computer as a human would.
It’s just one of a wide range of new and advanced capabilities, OpenAI says, including mathematical proficiency, software engineering, and defensive cybersecurity.
But “computer use is a particularly important part of what’s new,” OpenAI cofounder and president Greg Brockman said. The model “can zip through spreadsheets, fill out forms, and navigate across web pages often at superhuman speed,” he added.
OpenAI also released benchmark assessments that showed Astra beats its previous best model, GPT-5.6 Sol, as well as the best current models from its rival Anthropic, Claude Fable 5.1, on a wide range of tasks.
OpenAI is not the first to market with an AI agent that can use a computer. Anthropic pioneered the space with a beta program in 2024, and Perplexity built a system that can navigate a virtual computer to complete tasks for users in February this year.
But the concept is still not mainstream. To Brockman, computer use could be considered the start of the “AGI era,” as in artificial general intelligence.
Don’t expect computer use to show up in every office overnight. OpenAI is limiting the release of Astra to a limited set of enterprise customers, including those in its cybersecurity-focused Daybreak program. Astra will become available to all Plus, Pro, and Enterprise users “in the coming days,” as well as through the OpenAI API and AWS.
—EF
