Sam Altman tells TIME that OpenAI will achieve AGI by the end of this year.

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Summary

Sam Altman predicts that OpenAI will achieve AGI by the end of 2026, highlighting the capabilities of their AI system Astra in automating research and enabling persistent agents.

Time: - OpenAI leaders believe they are at the cusp of AGI. Sam Altman believes OpenAI will have an internal system that will qualify as AGI by the end of 2026. Mark Chen thinks OpenAI is 80% of the way to AGI. - OpenAI already has the automated AI research intern - that's Astra. Jakub Pachocki says that Astra "can implement an experimental idea inside OpenAI’s code base, run the experiment, and return results, or take a paper and perform work that previously occupied a human researcher for a week". - Astra enables "persistent agents", i.e., virtual colleagues toiling for sustained periods on tasks. Thibault Sottiaux says OpenAI is "close" to showing a product built around the concept of persistence. "It’s definitely going to feel like a new thing to people." - Sam Altman thinks Astra's biggest impact will be on discovery of new knowledge. "I expect this will be the first model where the model actually invents new things in a way that matters", which is "a very AGI-like thing".
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Cached at: 08/26/26, 03:26 PM

Time:

  • OpenAI leaders believe they are at the cusp of AGI. Sam Altman believes OpenAI will have an internal system that will qualify as AGI by the end of 2026. Mark Chen thinks OpenAI is 80% of the way to AGI.

  • OpenAI already has the automated AI research intern - that’s Astra. Jakub Pachocki says that Astra “can implement an experimental idea inside OpenAI’s code base, run the experiment, and return results, or take a paper and perform work that previously occupied a human researcher for a week”.

  • Astra enables “persistent agents”, i.e., virtual colleagues toiling for sustained periods on tasks. Thibault Sottiaux says OpenAI is “close” to showing a product built around the concept of persistence. “It’s definitely going to feel like a new thing to people.”

  • Sam Altman thinks Astra’s biggest impact will be on discovery of new knowledge. “I expect this will be the first model where the model actually invents new things in a way that matters”, which is “a very AGI-like thing”.

TIME (@TIME): TIME’s new cover: In 2026, OpenAI has seen key departures, rogue AI agents, major lawsuits, and has seen increased competition in the AI race. “We clearly had some missteps as a company,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tells TIME.

Inside the company’s plan for a reboot:

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