
OpenAI upgrades bio risk level for latest AI model
The AI firm on Thursday released ChatGPT agent, a new agentic AI model that can now perform tasks for users 'from start to finish,' according to a company press release.
OpenAI opted to treat the new model as having a high biological and chemical capability level in its preparedness framework, which evaluates for 'capabilities that create new risks of severe harm.'
'While we don't have definitive evidence that the model could meaningfully help a novice create severe biological harm—our threshold for High capability—we are exercising caution and implementing the needed safeguards now,' OpenAI wrote.
'As a result, this model has our most comprehensive safety stack to date with enhanced safeguards for biology: comprehensive threat modeling, dual-use refusal training, always-on classifiers and reasoning monitors, and clear enforcement pipelines,' it added.
OpenAI's newest model, which began rolling out to various paid users last week, comes as tech companies increasingly turn toward the agentic AI space.
Perplexity released an AI browser with agentic capabilities earlier this month, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced new tools last week to help its client build AI agents.
The ChatGPT maker's latest release comes as the company plans to open its first office in Washington to boost its policy ambitions and show off its products, according to Semafor.

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I Asked ChatGPT What Would Happen If Billionaires Paid Taxes at the Same Rate as the Upper Middle Class
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'Wealth inequality is rooted in more than just taxes–wages, education access, housing costs, and corporate ownership all play a role,' ChatGPT said. Billionaires paying taxes doesn't stop them from being billionaires, either, it pointed out. Taxing Billionaires Is Not That Simple While in theory billionaires paying higher taxes 'would shift a much bigger share of the tax burden onto the very wealthy,' ChatGPT wrote, billionaires are not as liquid as they may seem. 'A lot of billionaire wealth is tied up in things like stocks they don't sell, so taxing that would require big changes to how the tax code works.' Also, billionaires are good at finding loopholes and account strategies — it might be hard to enforce. What's a Good Middle Ground? We don't live in a black and white world, however. There's got to be a middle ground, so I asked ChatGPT if there is a way to tax billionaires more, even if it's not quite how the upper middle class are taxed. A likely compromise would come from a policy decision, which isn't likely to be forthcoming anytime soon. President Donald Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill only offered more tax breaks to the wealthiest. However, policy proposals that have been floated, include: A minimum tax on billionaires where they might pay around 20% of their overall income Limiting deductions and closing tax loopholes that allow them to significantly reduce taxable income Tax unrealized gains (those assets that have only earned but not yet been sold), gradually. ChatGPT agreed that billionaires could pay more than they currently do, even if they don't pay exactly what upper-middle-class workers pay in percentage terms. 'The key is to design policies that are fair, enforceable, and politically feasible.' I asked how realistic such policy proposals are, and ChatGPT told me what I already knew: They're 'moderately realistic' but only with the 'right political alignment.' 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