Field Notes

Astra beats Portal solo, NYC slows school AI, TPUs go external, AI pill in early trial

Agents crack long tasks, schools set limits, inference could get cheaper, and an update brings gpt-6-astra into your day.

The key stories

GPT-6 Astra finished the puzzle game Portal without human help. The source says it took under 24 hours, start to finish. The figure comes from the vendor. No independent check yet. This shows progress on long-horizon agents, but it is a one-off.1

llm 0.35 is out. The update adds the OpenAI model gpt-6-astra. If you use llm, you can now call the model straight from the CLI.2

Nature Biotechnology reports on an early study of Rentosertib. Markers of the epigenetic clock went down under therapy. That marker tracks biological age. This is a lab finding. Clinical endpoints are missing.3

New York City bans AI tools in public schools through the end of eighth grade. That covers classwork and homework. If you build learning software for NYC, plan without generative AI for K-8.4

The vendor is pushing externalization of TPU inference. That means making internal TPU stacks available to customers. InferenceX promises up to 50 percent better performance per dollar, per the vendor. Ironwood and TPUv8i are named. The numbers are not independently checked.5

Tools and releases

According to a report, Anthropic signed compute contracts worth up to 517 billion dollars over eleven years. Deal details are not public.6

UBS makes AI skills a formal requirement for new roles and bakes them into hiring.7

ChatGPT is back to a 55.5 percent share of AI chatbot website visits, per the source without independent auditing.8

Research

Qwen-Drive 1.0 gives reasons for braking maneuvers, but the explanations often diverge from the actual driving behavior.9

Sources

  1. GPT-6 Astra beat Portal start to finish without human help in under 24 hours (the-decoder.com)
  2. llm 0.35 (simonwillison.net)
  3. AI-designed drug appears to turn back the body's biological clock in early trial (the-decoder.com)
  4. New York City bans AI tools from public schools through eighth grade (the-decoder.com)
  5. TPU Inference Externalization Full Steam Ahead - InferenceX (newsletter.semianalysis.com)
  6. Anthropic reportedly signs $517 billion in compute deals after Dario Amodei warned rivals about reckless risk (the-decoder.com)
  7. At UBS, AI skills are now a condition for landing a job (the-decoder.com)
  8. ChatGPT claws back web traffic share to 55.5 percent as Gemini's brief comeback fades (the-decoder.com)
  9. Qwen-Drive 1.0 tells you why it brakes, just don't expect the explanation to match the maneuver (the-decoder.com)