- Industry - 2 min read OpenAI pauses Astra AI Model over critical cybersecurity concerns The company halted work after internal tests flagged potential “critical cyber capabilities,” including risks around autonomous exploitation of vulnerabilities. OpenAI has paused work on its upcoming AI model Astra after internal evaluations showed potentially dangerous advances in agentic coding and cybersecurity, with the company unable to rule out that the system could possess "critical cyber capabilities." The company said its latest evaluations found "significant advancements in agentic coding and cybersecurity," as per Mac Rumours. Under OpenAI's Preparedness Framework, the potential development of such capabilities triggers stricter safeguards, particularly when models could create risks of severe harm. OpenAI said it is "pausing" activities involving Astra while it strengthens its security controls. The company's cybersecurity guidelines call for additional protections for models that "create new risks of scaled cyberattacks and vulnerability exploitation." The "Critical" threshold described in the framework involves the ability to identify and develop functional zero-day exploits across severity levels in many hardened, real-world critical systems without human intervention. It also includes the ability to devise and execute end-to-end novel strategies for cyberattacks. Before Astra can be deployed, OpenAI plans to introduce additional safeguards and security measures. These include restricting work on the model until the new protections are implemented, using isolated testing environments with limited network and tool access, adding sandboxed execution and expanding monitoring capabilities. OpenAI also said it will work with relevant government agencies and AI safety organisations to test Astra. "We're committed to working alongside governments, safety institutes, and civil society to ensure that the frontier capabilities of models like Astra, and those that follow, are deployed responsibly and broadly for the benefit of all humanity," writes OpenAI. Astra has not been formally announced. However, OpenAI recently shared details about its