OpenAI has officially announced GPT-6 Astra, sparking an instant firestorm with over 1,000 points and 900 comments on Hacker News. While we haven't read the full post ourselves, the community reaction is laser-focused on jaw-dropping claims around abstract reasoning—with users reporting that Astra leaps to over 98% on the ARC-AGI-3 benchmark, up from around 30% on earlier models.
For early-stage founders, a jump of this magnitude resets the playing field. If a model can handle high-level abstract reasoning this effectively, complex workflows that previously required custom code or heavy human oversight can now be handled out of the box, rendering simple software wrappers obsolete while creating massive opportunities for novel, deep-tech applications.
For small backers investing £500 at a time, this is a loud reminder to look for real defensibility. Don't back startups whose sole moat is access to an API; back the founders who control proprietary data, unique distribution channels, or real-world networks that even a supercharged GPT-6 Astra cannot easily replace.