OpenAI abandons GPT-6.1 Astra and launches Dots agent in a new clash with Anthropic and Meta

OpenAI announced Monday that it is abandoning plans for GPT-6.1 Astra after the model frequently ignored users’ instructions. The decision was presented at the company’s annual developer conference and comes amid intensifying competition with Anthropic.

The GPT-6.1 Sol model ranks below GPT-6 Astra, OpenAI’s most powerful model, which was launched at the beginning of September. The company has not yet provided additional details about the technical reasons that led to the abandonment of the Astra project.

At the same event, OpenAI announced Dots, a personal agent designed to operate continuously and perform online tasks on users’ behalf. The platform is presented as a rival to Muse, the agent recently launched by Meta. Google is also developing a similar product, called Spark.

Such digital agents can be used for activities such as booking a restaurant table or managing a calendar. The announcements come as OpenAI and Anthropic intensify their commercial rivalry and consider initial public offerings. OpenAI also said that ChatGPT is currently used by more than 1.2 billion people each week.