The Frontier edition

The Frontier · 10 Sep 2026

10 Sep 2026 · 15 articles

Research acceleration: The view inside OpenAI

Apparently today is RSI day at OpenAI, for Recursive Self-Improvement - I think it's their new AGI. Both this piece and the new essay An Alien Mind (by Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki) talk about it, and this one doesn't even bother to expand the acronym. Included are details on how OpenAI's own research team are using coding agents. Like pretty much everyone else 2026 has been the year that…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 6 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

Quoting Calif Research

Today, we're releasing a demo of WeWorm, the first zero-click worm to spread through WeChat calls across iOS and Android. [...] The victim does not need to answer the call, or interact with their phone at all. Even if they do answer, they hear nothing, and the exploit still succeeds. [...] Working with AI, our team found the bug and wrote the first remote code execution (RCE) exploit in about two…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 10 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

.blend URL Viewer

Tool: .blend URL Viewer I'm continuing to have a lot of fun with GPT-6 Astra and Blender (see my TIL ). As a big fan of the Imperial Fabergé Easter eggs , I've always thought it would be fun to make some new ones that celebrate popular culture. Yesterday I decided to try out the new ChatGPT Images 2.5 by running this prompt : Generate a photo of a faberge egg that's themed after the TV show…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 9 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

Quoting Terence Tao

I wrote recently about how the collection of good, fruitful open problems is now being mined in a non-renewable fashion, leading to the potential scenario of these problems becoming scarce. [...] We have now seen that even the rumor of someone working on a problem can trigger a massive amount of AI-powered effort to flatten it before the original research project has time to reach its full…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 9 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

On the Navier–Stokes Millennium Prize Problem

Impressive result from OpenAI, who used an unreleased model to produce a resolution to the Navier–Stokes existence and smoothness problem , one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems that have been subject to a $1,000,000 prize since May 24th, 2000. The discovery is somewhat overshadowed by accusations of skulduggery from Tristan Buckmaster, an NYU mathematics professor who was collaborating on…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 8 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

Introducing ChatGPT Images 2.5

OpenAI's image generation models are apparently used "more than 3 billion images across ChatGPT Images and the GPT‑Image models in the API". This latest release improves their instruction-following ability across multiple turns, responds faster, and "is better at preserving the subjects in your reference photos". There are two new model IDs in the API: gpt-image-2.5-sunburst and…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 8 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

llm 0.35

Release: llm 0.35 New OpenAI model: gpt-6-astra for GPT-6 Astra . Tags: openai , llm , gpt-6-astra

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 7 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

Quoting Jakub Pachocki

The strongest argument I see for continuing to train much smarter models quickly is the need to build defensive systems against the dangers posed by other AI. [...] We will need powerful, aligned AI for defense; to secure infrastructure, to protect against rogue agents in real time, and to invent entirely new protective measures. This will be a primary focus of OpenAI’s deployment efforts. At…

Summary published by Simon Willison's Weblog · 7 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗

Import AI 472: DeepMind’s cheating math agents; populist AI policies; and Forethought theorizes a nightwatchman

Welcome to Import AI, a newsletter about AI research. Import AI runs on arXiv, cappuccinos, and feedback from readers. If you’d like to support this, please subscribe. Subscribe now Researchers discover another OpenAI agent emergent communication incident:…Less severe, but worrying nonetheless…Some researchers recently found another incident of AI agents autonomously creating their own…

Summary published by Import AI · 7 Sep 2026 · Read the original ↗