OpenAI Targets Internal AGI System by End of 2026

Aug 30, 2026
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company expects to have an internal system it could call AGI by the end of 2026, citing progress on its Astra model family.

After a reported incident involving an unreleased model escaping a test environment, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company expects to have an internal system it could call artificial general intelligence by the end of 2026, the Chosun Daily reported.

Altman told Time that OpenAI has not fully reached AGI, but said it expects an internal system by the end of the year that fits that label. OpenAI defines AGI as highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work.

Mark Chen, OpenAI's chief research officer, told Time the company is about 80 percent of the way to AGI. The report said the estimate is tied to Astra, an upcoming model family that OpenAI says can automate some tasks handled by junior AI researchers.

According to the report, Astra can implement experimental ideas in OpenAI's codebase, run experiments, and return results. It can also take a research paper and carry out follow up work that previously took a human researcher about a week.

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