unveils

ChatGPT creator’s latest release comes amid heightened fears following AI-led hacking of the startup Hugging Face.

OpenAI has announced the release of what it says is its most advanced AI model, amid heightened scrutiny of the risks of the frontier technology escaping human control.

The $852bn start-up said in its announcement on Thursday that GPT‑6 Astra, the “world’s most intelligent and aligned” AI model, earned perfect or near-perfect scores in key benchmarks of AI reasoning, beating both its prior release GPT 5.6 Sol and rival Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5.

The ChatGPT creator said GPT‑6 would become available to the general public in the coming days, following its initial launch with a “limited set of organisations”.

OpenAI’s latest release comes as the AI industry is at the centre of a lively public debate about the dangers of the cutting-edge technology following the AI-led hacking of the startup Hugging Face in July.

An independent probe into the cyberattack found that hundreds of OpenAI’s AI agents had begun communicating among themselves before breaking out of their controlled environment and compromising Hugging Face’s servers.

On Thursday, US Senator Bernie Sanders, an Independent, and US House Representative Greg Casar, a Democrat, unveiled legislation that would pause the development of advanced AI until the establishment of federal safety rules and an outright ban on the creation of “superintelligent” AI.

“Nearly every day, there is a frightening new story about how Big Tech companies are losing control of the technology they are developing, with potentially cataclysmic results,” Sanders said in a statement announcing the legislation, which is unlikely to advance due to the Republicans’ control of all three branches of the US government.

“The leaders of the major AI companies publicly acknowledge that they do not fully understand the technology and that it is escaping their control. It is irresponsible for society to allow them to move forward and make these products even more advanced.”

In its announcement, OpenAI devoted significant space to AI safety, highlighting both GPT‑6’s potential to do harm and its safety features.

Toby Walsh, a professor and AI expert at the University of New South Wales, Sydney, said that while OpenAI is clearly “neck and neck” in the race to lead AI, the technology remains inconsistent and in need of greater scrutiny.

“The intelligence in artificial intelligence is still today very jagged,” Walsh said. “There are simple things that even the best AI models do poorly.

“And it’s hard to see how the AI companies, including OpenAI, are slowing down to address justified concerns around cyber risk, when new models are being released at an ever greater and greater rate.”

Roman Yampolskiy, a computer scientist at the University of Louisville, said GPT‑6 marks a “meaningful” advance that raises the stakes for AI safety.

“The key question is whether capabilities are improving faster than our ability to reliably understand, predict and control these systems,” Yampolskiy said.

“I see little evidence that this gap is closing.”

Saab has unveiled its roadmap for its Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) program, a stealthy, supersonic ‘fighter drone,’ which could enter service in the 2030s with the Swedish Air Force and potentially other customers. The aerospace and defense company is already working on two uncrewed technology demonstrators and today presented a full-scale mock-up of an operational drone that those two aircraft could inform. This drone, compared to the U.S. Air Force Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), for example, is a higher-end proposition, more advanced, larger, and with superior performance than those being test flown in the United States.

TWZ was among other members of the media who were briefed on the ACP program by Peter Nilsson, the head of Saab’s Advanced Programs business unit. He was talking at Malmen Air Base in Sweden, during an event to celebrate the Swedish Air Force’s 100th anniversary.

As for the name, Nilsson confirmed that, before settling on ACP, Saab had used the Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) and Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) nomenclature. Meanwhile, the ACP falls under Sweden’s overarching KFS project, which stands for Koncept för Framtida Stridsflygplan, or Concept for Future Combat Aircraft.

The most significant element of the announcement was the full-scale mock-up of what Saab is calling aircraft A3. The idea of this is to show how a potential high-end ACP could look, and the kinds of capabilities it might bring, provided the company is awarded a development contract.

Broadly speaking, aircraft A3 has a lot in common with a previous concept that the company released back in 2024.

The concept retains the same tailless, stealthy configuration, with significant internal capacity for fuel and internal stores. The stealthy, chisel-type DSI air intakes remain on either side of the fuselage, but the prominent bulge roughly above where the engine nozzle would be is removed. The overall geometry remains similar: a sleek, blended wing/body configuration with cropped wings and a prominent chine running around the arrow-like forward edges, giving it something of a resemblance to the Cold War-era Saab Draken fighter, with its distinctive double-delta wing.

In the meantime, Saab is working on aircraft A1 and A2, uncrewed technology demonstrators that are being funded by the Swedish Ministry of Defense.

The first of these, A1, is expected to fly within the next 15 months,” according to Nilsson. The defense ministry called upon Saab to “go from concept to first flight within 36 months,” providing what Nilsson described as a “quite challenging” timeline.

Aircraft A1 uses the same GE Aerospace F414 engine that powers the Saab Gripen E/F crewed fighter. The turbofan produces around 22,000 pounds of thrust and will ensure A1 has supersonic performance.  However, for Saab, the main goal of A1 is to demonstrate that the company can build and fly a low-observable drone.

Saab provided imagery of wind-tunnel models of the A1. Overall, it appears loosely similar to the A3 mockup, with the exception of the twin, outward-canted tailfins. Aircraft A1 will have capacity for an internal weapons bay, although it will not be used for stores release tests. The next test article, aircraft A2 will have an internal weapons bay, and will presumably be used to test ordnance. Otherwise, A2 will be used for tests of other advanced technologies, including new materials and sensors.

No artwork of aircraft A2 was provided, but Nilsson said it will be “not quite” identical to A1, in terms of appearance. It will also be powered by the F414.

The F414 was selected due to its availability and the fact that the company has plenty of experience with the engine due to the Gripen E/F program. Saab is looking at other potential powerplants for the A3, but acknowledged that, should Sweden buy a productionized ACP, the engine commonality would be a big advantage, including, for example, when an engine needs to be changed at a remote airbase. This kind of maintenance is central to the Gripen concept of operation and would be retained for the ACP.

Saab is contracted until 2030 to develop the A1 and A2 demonstrators. What happens next will depend on the Swedish Ministry of Defense, and there is currently no agreement for a follow-on ACP contract, which would see the design advanced to a production-oriented prototype like the A3.

“We have floated the view that this would be a great asset to the Gripen E, but right now there is no commitment,” Nilsson remarked. Saab envisages the Gripen E serving as a tactical mission commander for one or more ACPs, working in conjunction with the company’s GlobalEye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, a type also ordered by Sweden. Outside of Sweden, the drone could work with a wide variety of other crewed platforms, too.

Pending investment from the Swedish government, Saab may decide to use its own funds for early development of the A3. However, Nilsson noted that “if a customer does not come along I don’t know when my CEO will stop me spending — you need a customer to buy into this.”

Saab’s broader ACP vision is based on an advanced platform that offers both low-observable features and supersonic performance.

The resulting drone should be capable of undertaking “high-risk missions in heavily defended airspace.” As well as air-to-air combat, missions would include electronic warfare, suppression of enemy air defenses, and deep precision strike.

If Sweden buys into the idea, a development contract could be expected around 2030. Thereafter Saab thinks it could have the A3 aircraft in the air sometime in the early 2030s, leading to initial operational capability from the mid-2030s.

With the ACP program, Saab hopes to stake its claim as the “first-mover in the segment” for high-end ‘loyal wingman’-type aircraft.

But even if the Swedish Air Force isn’t swayed by Saab’s ACP offer, the company is seeing the related spiral development as fundamental to its future as a builder of crewed combat aircraft, too.

The same basic architecture now being developed for the ACP could provide a technological and conceptual base for a future (crewed) Gripen successor. This would be required by the Swedish Air Force sometime after 2055. If there is demand, Saab says it could start development of such an aircraft in the mid-2030s.

A rendering of a potential future crewed combat aircraft that appeared in Saab’s presentation reveals a slightly more detailed version of a concept shown in the past. Namely, a design apparently tailored for high speed, as well as low observability. Some of the same features found in the A3 concept — notably the overall blended wing/body and cropped wings — appear in the crewed combat aircraft, although this adds outward-canted tail surfaces, mounted on booms that project relatively far beyond the engine nozzle. The nose and forward fuselage bear a resemblance to the F-35, and, overall, the aircraft seems to be around the same size as the U.S. design, perhaps a little larger.

For its part, the Swedish Air Force is still weighing up whether it wants to pursue a crewed successor to the Gripen, if it will abandon crewed fighters altogether, or if it will seek to join a foreign sixth-generation fighter program. A decision on this is likely sometime between 2028 and 2030.

Speaking to journalists at Malmen today, Brigadier-General Niclas Magnusson, the deputy commander of the Swedish Air Force, called for closer collaboration between the service and industry as Sweden seeks to define its future air combat requirements.

“We have to research and find the limits of what we are able to do,” Magnusson said, adding that he expected the future Swedish Air Force to field both crewed and uncrewed platforms.

That decision is still to come but will also be informed by the relative costs of the Gripen (more of which may still be acquired), higher-end drones, and potential future crewed platforms.

When it comes to the ACP, Nilsson suggested that the life-cycle cost will be around a third that of the Gripen, although acquisition cost won’t be as low as that.

“The problem is that this bloody aircraft is too low cost,” Nilsson added, pointing to the Gripen E.

Ultimately, the cost of the ACP will depend on the degree of capability that the customer demands.

Potentially, a single ACP could cost half as much as a Gripen. Open-source reports suggest that the Gripen E typically comes with a flyaway cost of roughly $70-80 million.

If the ACP is to offer “high-end survival,” Nilsson explained, then a customer would likely be able to field two to three ACPs for each Gripen. The ratio “is not one to 10.”

While Saab also wants to offer the ACP to other Gripen E/F operators as a priority, the fate of the program remains heavily dependent on larger questions about the future of the Swedish Air Force.

The program gives Saab a solid, and potentially unique, entrance into the CCA space. As we’ve said for years, fourth-generation fighters can remain highly relevant when paired with CCAs — and with a drone as advanced as this, potentially even more so.

The ACP will still come with a significant cost, but that could be offset by reducing or eliminating the need for a fifth- or sixth-generation crewed fighter for certain air forces.

For now, Saab’s high-end loyal wingman remains a proposal rather than a committed production program, but the company is clearly positioning it as more than another experimental drone. The A1 and A2 demonstrators are intended to prove the technologies needed for a survivable, supersonic, low-observable uncrewed aircraft, while the A3 concept unveiled today illustrates where Saab believes those technologies could ultimately lead.

Whether Stockholm opts for a new Saab-developed crewed fighter, joins an international sixth-generation program, or moves toward a force built around a greater mix of crewed and uncrewed aircraft, the ACP work gives the country a way to explore those possibilities without committing to one of them yet.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

A SMALL UK train station that sees thousands of festivalgoers every year has had a glow-up.

Castle Cary train station in Somerset has had a £835,000 vintage makeover.

The train station is close to Glastonbury Festival, making it the ideal stop to get to the festival.

The inside of the station has now been restored to a classic style, with the original entrance reopened.

Along the platform, travellers will find more seating, a digital departure board and a new toilet.

The ticket office boasts a wooden panelled exterior with a black and beige sign that reads ‘tickets’.

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The walls are then painted in different shades of brown.

There is a new ramp for wheelchair access as well.

Around 350,000 people use the station each year to head to Glastonbury Festival, which is around six miles away and served by a free shuttle during the festival.

From the station, there are numerous services including Great Western Railway services direct to London Paddington.

According to the BBC, Tim Hedley Jones, director of the Railway Heritage Trust, said: “I’m particularly pleased to see the reproduction of the original Great Western Railway benches so that people can appreciate the quality of furniture that was provided in stations, and also the colours that were used.

“Historic stations have character. This project, whilst also bringing back the old heritage at the station, removed the clutter and made it a much more positive experience for passengers in a modern context.”

The SEC announced on Tuesday that it had filed a proposal titled “Regulation Crypto Assets”, giving crypto entrepreneurs a clearer, considerably lighter route to raising capital under federal securities law, according to the press release published by the regulator.

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It is the agency’s first formal rulemaking dedicated to crypto asset offerings, building on broader interpretive guidance the SEC issued in March, and would spare qualifying issuers the costly registration process required of most public offerings.

At the centre of the proposal sit two new exemptions.

The “startup exemption” would let an issuer raise up to $5 million (€4.3mn) over a four year period without registering the offering.

A second, the “fundraising exemption”, would permit raises of up to $75 million (€64.7mn) within any 12 month stretch, though issuers relying on it would still need to publish financial statements and meet ongoing reporting duties.

Both routes ask companies to give investors narrative, principles based disclosures, rather than the dense legal filings typically demanded of public listings.

The proposal also sets out a conditional safe harbour that could eventually place certain tokens outside the legal definition of a security, once an issuer has finished, or permanently abandoned, the managerial efforts it promised investors.

It would also override conflicting state registration rules for offerings made under the exemptions, sparing issuers from having to comply separately with individual state securities regimes.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins described the package as a “minimum effective dose” of oversight, protecting investors while leaving builders maximum room to innovate.

The reception of the proposal has been largely warm.

Summer Mersinger, CEO of the Blockchain Association, said the move finally delivers the tailored regulatory clarity the sector has sought for years. Cody Carbone, CEO of the Digital Chamber, likewise praised the plan, pledging support in helping the industry expand within the US rather than abroad.

However, the proposal is far from final. It stays open for public comment for 60 days once published in the Federal Register, meaning its provisions could still change, or be scrapped, before any final rule is adopted.

US Senate stalls, regulator steps in

The SEC’s move comes roughly a week and a half after the US Senate left Washington for its summer recess without advancing the Digital Asset Market CLARITY Act (H.R. 3633), the industry’s flagship bill, which would split oversight of digital assets between the SEC and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

US Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed a cloture motion on the bill on 7 August, but lawmakers departed before a vote was held. That motion is now due to come up again on 15 September, a procedural hurdle rather than a final vote, once senators return.

SEC Chairman Paul Atkins has argued on more than one occasion that only Congress can deliver a lasting, “future-proofed” framework able to survive changes in political leadership, and the Commission says it still backs the bill’s passage.

Even so, with its timetable slipping into autumn, the regulator appears to have decided not to wait, instead using powers it already holds to offer the industry some certainty while lawmakers prepare to resume the debate next month.

ARIANA Grande appeared to show off a mysterious new tattoo as she kicked off the first night of her London tour.

The new inking is thought to match one recently seen on boyfriend Ricky Álvarez, sparking speculation that the couple may have got identical designs ahead of Ariana’s ten-day residency.

Taking to the stage at the opening night of her Eternal Sunshine Tour, her first tour in the UK since 2019, Ariana appeared to have the words “I do love you” tattooed across her collarbone.

Ricky reportedly has the same phrase inked on his chest.

The rekindled couple first dated in 2015, when Ricky worked as one of Ariana’s backing dancers.

Their last public appearance as a couple was in 2016, shortly before they went their separate ways.

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He was later namechecked in her 2018 hit Thank U, Next, in which she sang: “Wrote some songs about Ricky, now I listen and laugh.”

Rumours of a reunion first began swirling in June after Ricky was spotted at Ariana’s birthday concert in Austin, Texas.

During the show, she changed the original lyric to: “I know he’s still got my back.”

She fuelled speculation further at a later show in Brooklyn, singing: “We always find our way back.”

The pair appeared to confirm they had rekindled their romance last week when Ariana shared two photos of them together in an Instagram carousel and tagged Ricky in both.

The pair are believed to have reunited last month, with Ricky appearing to make their rekindled romance Instagram official by sharing a carousel of photos on social media.

The new design joinig around 50 other tattoos Ariana has, including a matching “For Good” design she shares with Cynthia Erivo in tribute to their time filming Wicked.

Last month, Ariana announced she would be withdrawing from the spotlight after her latest music video for Petal sparked concern among fans over her health.

Despite insisting onstage that her break from the spotlight was planned “a long time ago” she axed plans to star in the West End revival of the classic Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George.

It’s also been rumoured that she’ll no longer be taking part in the press tour for her upcoming movie release Focker-In-Law.

Her representative said at the time: “Ariana will be taking a step back from visibility after she completes the Eternal Sunshine Tour.

“She looks forward to finishing the tour and ending it on a high note, both healthily and happily, and then taking a much-deserved break from public-facing work and appearances, which has led to endless, ongoing public scrutiny.”

Former EastEnders star Shaheen Jafargholi, who played Shakil Kazemi on the BBC soap, shocked fans when he took to social media and posed topless to show off his ripped appearance

Former EastEnders star Shaheen Jafargholi has shocked fans with his appearance – almost a decade after he left the BBC soap. The actor, 29, played Shakil Kazemi from 2016 until 2018, with his alter-ego leaving Walford in explosive scenes which saw him stabbed to death as part of a hard-hitting knife storyline.

The former soap star recently took to Instagram to share a series of snaps of himself topless whilst attending a music festival, and, in one photo he posed confidently as he looked to his left and showed off his toned physique.

In another snap, the TV star was seen rolling on the grass as he cuddled his dog. He did not caption the post, but fans were taken aback by his appearance.

One wrote: “Well then [fire emoji],” and another said: “Phoaar!” A third wrote: “You’re looking very nice and slim in this Photo,” and a fourth said: “gorgeous!!”

Following his time on EastEnders, he enjoyed a five-year stint as Marty Kirkby on Casualty and later this year, he will be seen in Sky legal drama War.

When Shaheen left EastEnders, he said: “It’s going to be weird – I’ve been there for two years now and made so many incredible friends and family.

“Like anything all good things come to an end, it’s the nature of these kind of shows, characters come and go I feel so blessed to be able to leave with such an incredible storyline that means so much.”

Shaheen initially found fame when he competed on Britain’s Got Talent in 2009 alongside Susan Boyle and Diversity, and has so far released two albums. Shortly after impressing Simon Cowell, Amanda Holden and Piers Morgan on the ITV1 talent show, and reaching the final, he was selected to perform at Michael Jackson’s funeral.

He sang Who’s Lovin’ You again and, according to the late US talk show host Larry King, the founder of Motown Records, Berry Gordy, said “If I were still in the business, I would sign him tomorrow.”

Shaheen previously recalled: “When I was walking I wasn’t thinking about anything other than the way to get there. So I just walked out and did it. When I opened my mouth to sing, I was fine.

“When I sing I go into a totally different world. I feel invincible. I feel nobody can touch me and I can do whatever I want to do. It wasn’t until I’d finished that I realised what I’d just done.”

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