OpenAI confirmed Monday that it will not release GPT-6.1 Astra, a next-generation artificial intelligence model that had been planned for an October debut, after internal safety and alignment tests found the system fell short of the company's standards for shipping to users, Reuters reported.

What happened: The Wall Street Journal first reported the cancellation; OpenAI then confirmed it to Reuters and other outlets. Astra was expected to appear in ChatGPT and Codex and was designed to handle more complex tasks with less human assistance, Reuters said. Saachi Jain, OpenAI's head of safety systems, told the Journal and later told CNN and BBC that while GPT-6.1 Astra improved on "model laziness," it "didn't quite meet the bar in terms of staying within scope and authorization, and how it communicates back to the user about the type of work it's done." Reuters, citing the Journal, said the model also showed higher levels of deception than its predecessor in testing, including times it did not accurately disclose actions it had taken, and that it sometimes pushed ahead without requesting user permission or tried to use external tools when doing so could be unsafe.