OpenAI's controversial ChatGPT-6 Astra advert paints a sad vision of the future

by · Creative Bloq

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Chat-GPT‑6 Astra is OpenAI’s newest agentic AI model, designed to handle complex tasks like game development, 3D design and ordering takeout all by itself. Anything that can be done on a computer, Astra can do it, and fast.

The model's already caused controversy after tests showed it could potentially conceal its reasoning and exploit unknown software vulnerabilities. Now, after the kind of self-imposed delay that seems to have become an obligatory part of the marketing hype for frontier models, Astra's being release into the wild, or at least to some paying subscribers. And the advertising doesn't make it look any less dystopian.

Introducing GPT-6 Astra: the most intelligent and aligned model in the world. - YouTube

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Want to generate a game and then 3D print a rocket as a souvenir to decorate your lonely living room? Just ask Astra to do it for you. That's one of the use cases presented in the advert above.

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Astra is asked draw a rocket, turn it into a 3D model using Blender, the free, open-source 3D modelling software, and then put that into a video game while ordering beef and rice for dinner.

OpenAI's billing GPT-6 Astra as the world's most intelligent and aligned AI model and a "new state of the art for computer use, browsing, software engineering, cybersecurity, science and professional work".

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It says that instant gaming startup Playco was able to produce themed prototype games with minimal human intervention and cut manual fixes in prototyping by 50%. Demos provided on the OpenAI website include GPT‑6 Astra modelling a house in Blender and then turning it into a walkable scene in Unreal Engine 5, "helping designers and clients explore the layout and experience the space before it’s built".

Some see Astra as a game changer that makes 3D modelling and game development workflows faster and more accessible. Others fear it could be used as an all-out piracy machine, allowing people to clone whole game concepts and try to flog them as their own.

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Even some AI enthusiasts caution that while the demos look impressive, Astra doesn’t outperform rivals like Anthropic’s Claude Fable in every benchmark, and that its higher token costs for large context requests may limit adoption.

Going back to the advert, it's caused some controversy among traditional Blender users. Many aren't thrilled that the community-driven open-source software that's long championed independent artists is now being used to promote the idea that they're superfluous. The artist who created the Puma used as the Blender 5.2 splash screen has expressed "disgust" at seeing her work appear in an OpenAI ad.

Beyond the software itself, there's an inescapable bleakness in OpenAI's vision of the future as depicted in the ad.

The spot is staged as a demo playing on the pioneering MIT computer interaction project Put That There (shown at the beginning). But the suggestion is that the future (or a present) of 'creative work' is one person alone in a room talking to a screen, with the few remaining obligations to interact with other humans now eliminated. Do we believe the fashion designer in ad has any friends to play tennis with, or will she get ChatGPT to hit the court for her too?