Model Access

OpenAI

2026-09-29 09:15:33

OpenAI Said to Ready 24/7 AI Agent for Developer Event, While Astra Upgrade Stays on Hold

OpenAI is set to use its annual developer conference to show off a broad slate of new releases, with CEO Sam Altman expected to appear at the event. The company has signaled that more than 20 new products or features will be introduced. According to Axios, people familiar with the matter said the lineup is expected to include a new AI agent designed to run around the clock. Developers are also expected to gain access to at least one new model. The event will not include an upgraded version of Astra, which OpenAI has described as its most powerful model. OpenAI said it canceled plans to release that version for safety reasons. The same report said that while this specific Astra follow-up has been shelved, new Astra models are still expected in the future. The planned announcements point to a busy developer event, but the company appears to be drawing a clear line around which systems it is willing to release now and which ones it is holding back.

160

AI

2026-09-01 04:27:30

VC Says Access, Not Price, Is the New Scarcity as Frontier AI Splits Into Closed Camps

In a post on X, venture capitalist Tomasz Tunguz said the frontier AI market is splitting into closed camps, with labs choosing partners, cutting off rivals and rationing access to top models. He pointed to recent moves across partnerships, API cutoffs and model rationing as evidence. Salesforce has tapped Anthropic as its dedicated AI partner, making Claude the default model in the world's largest CRM and Slack. OpenAI cut Cursor's API access on Nov. 12 after SpaceX acquired Cursor. Z.ai has put its flagship model behind the security review of a host with cumulative revenue over $10 billion. Anthropic is rationing Mythos 5 via Project Glasswing and restricting Fable to U.S.-only inference. OpenAI is giving trusted partners early access to GPT-5.6 variants. On the investment side, Nvidia is backing open ecosystems with $13 billion for Hugging Face, $7 billion for Poolside and $26 billion for Nemotron. Tunguz argues that access, not price, is the new scarcity in frontier AI.

790

OpenAI

2026-07-29 17:09:45

OpenAI to offer free access to frontier models for 100,000 researchers

OpenAI has announced that it will provide 100,000 researchers with free access to its frontier models, according to a report cited by ChainCatcher from Jin10. The brief item did not include details such as when the access program will begin, which models will be covered, or how researchers will be selected or onboarded. ChainCatcher published the update in its technology category as a short newsflash. No additional information on eligibility, geographic scope, or program duration was provided in the source text.

1940