OpenAI released GPT-6 Astra today, a model that OpenAI President Greg Brockman says may be remembered as the arrival of artificial general intelligence, or humanlike capability.

• Why it matters: Astra pushes AI agents closer to doing complex professional work on their own — while raising questions about how safely they can be deployed, Axios' Ina Fried reports.

Driving the news: During a briefing today, Brockman told reporters he believes OpenAI has reached AGI, while leaving users to decide whether Astra meets that definition.

• As to whether Astra could mark the arrival of AGI, he said: "I think it might be about this model."
• He ended the briefing by saying: "Welcome to the AGI era."

⏪ Catch up quick: Astra is the first model OpenAI has designated as reaching its "critical" cybersecurity threshold under its preparedness framework.

• That means the model can potentially find and exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities across well-protected systems without step-by-step human guidance.

🥊 It remains to be seen just how well Astra can take on highly advanced tasks in the real world without making errors or raising fresh safety concerns.

• OpenAI acknowledged that Astra was harder to monitor in evaluations designed to test whether it could evade oversight.

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Disclosure: Axios and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement that allows OpenAI to access part of Axios' story archives while helping fund the launch of Axios into four local cities and providing some AI tools. Axios has editorial independence.

For only the second time in a quarter century, a majority of Republicans — 52% — approved of labor unions, Axios' Andrew Pantazi reports from a recent Gallup poll.

• A record 47% of Americans want unions to have more influence, more than double the 23% who want less.

🧮 By the numbers: Overall, 71% of Americans approved of unions, tying the 2022 level.

• Gallup last recorded higher approval in 1959 at 73%.

The GOP's warmer feelings toward unions don't translate into wanting them to wield more power: 49% of Republicans want unions to have less influence, compared with just 19% who want them to have more.

• Just 11% of U.S. workers — 16.5 million — were represented by unions in 2025, compared with 23% and 20.5 million workers in 1983.

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1. 🎤 Vice President JD Vance today led the White House's first press briefing since July. Asked about stubborn pump pain straining Americans, Vance blamed Iranian strikes and said: "I'm not going to make a promise about when it's going to return to $3." Watch the briefing.
2. 🤗 Nvidia announced it'll acquire open-source AI platform Hugging Face for $12.93 billion, just a month after Hugging Face was hacked by rogue OpenAI models, Axios' Dan Primack and Madison Mills report.
3. 📺 Fox News said in a surprise announcement that longtime Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo is leaving the network. One of the network's most high-profile hosts, Bartiromo has developed a strong rapport with the president. More from Axios' Sara Fischer.
4. 🛋️ Southwest Airlines is aiming to launch its first lounge network next year. Construction is underway on the first four lounges, coming to Baltimore, Austin, Honolulu and Nashville. Read the announcement.

🕯️ Gloria Steinem, the journalist, activist and organizer who became the most recognizable face of the U.S. women's movement, died at 92 at her home in New York City.

• Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine, bringing feminist arguments about work, sex, politics, family and reproductive rights to a mass audience, Axios' Andrew Pantazi reports.

Some airports are now allowing gateside sendoffs and reunions under a new TSA plan.

• Gateside passes will allow non-travelers to use PreCheck lanes to meet a friend or conduct business during a layover, shop or eat beyond security, or welcome loved ones, Axios Salt Lake City's Erin Alberty reports.

🧳 Applications opened this week for "Gateside by TSA PreCheck" access at 13 airports.

• The agency says the new offering will bring back "the moments that once defined air travel" — the kind that made Rachel get off the plane in the series finale of "Friends."

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