New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- OpenAI "cannot rule out" that its upcoming model Astra has "critical" cyber capabilities, a designation that has prompted the company to expand safety testing and pause internal activities that do not meet stricter security requirements, OpenAI told Axios.

The company told Axios that internal evaluations of Astra left it unable to rule out "critical cyber capabilities" in the system, a designation sitting at the upper end of the risk tiers set out in OpenAI's preparedness framework, first published in 2023 to govern how dangerous capabilities are assessed before deployment.

As a result, OpenAI has widened its security testing regime and halted internal work that does not meet tighter safeguard requirements.

The fir...