OpenAI expects to hit internal AGI bar by end-2026, plus Microduck robot and GLM-5.3-Flash model launch

[AINews] OpenAI to reach AGI bar by end-2026

Sam Altman told TIME that OpenAI will internally declare AGI by December 2026. Chief Scientist Jakub Pachocki says the unreleased Astra model is already the 'Automated AI Research Intern' he targeted for September 2026. Mark Chen pegs OpenAI at 80% of the way to AGI. The post doesn't spell out the AGI definition, so I'd discount the timeline a bit. On hardware, Pollen Robotics and Hugging Face launched Microduck, a 25 cm open-source biped at $399, shipping before Christmas. It packs 15 actuators, camera, speaker, LiDAR, NFC, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi, with sim-to-real training. Thom Wolf reported one unit sold every 5 seconds and $1M in sales. On models, the mystery Ox Alpha was confirmed as Zhipu's GLM-5.3-Flash: 320B total params, 18B active, 1M context, hybrid attention. 4-bit quantization retains 93% accuracy, runnable on a 256GB Mac or two DGX Sparks. Together says it nearly matches Luna on DeepSWE while doing 2x the work for the same budget.

Why it matters: Three OpenAI leaders simultaneously put AGI timelines and internal milestones on the record in a TIME interview — Astra is confirmed to have hit the 'automated AI research intern' bar for the first time. The source authority and information density are exceptional. The caveat:...