OpenAI AI Updates: November 4, 2026

1. OpenAI Says GPT-6 Astra Designed a Device for Talking to Codex End to End in Under a Week, While an Unreleased Model Scores 0.875 on BenchCAD 2.0

OpenAI published “Accelerating engineering for the physical world” on November 3, describing how its hardware teams use ChatGPT and Codex for CAD, PCB design, manufacturing drawings and simulation across robotics and compute infrastructure, with hardware-team token usage up 23 times since February. As a side project, the hardware team had GPT-6 Astra design a device for talking to the Codex coding agent in under a week, with the model handling the enclosure, PCB layout (component selection and trace routing), firmware and user interface; a contract manufacturer produced a small prototype batch in under a month, but several revision rounds were needed because Astra did not always account for manufacturing constraints, tolerances and assembly details. OpenAI also reports that an unnamed internal model scores 0.875 on BenchCAD 2.0, a benchmark that tests whether models can reconstruct 3D parts and assemblies and identify connections on PCBs, against 0.594 for GPT-6 Astra at its highest reasoning setting; it has shared no other details about the internal model. Source The Decoder

2. OpenAI Says ChatGPT’s Search Volume Now Equals 20% of Google’s

OpenAI consumer product lead for ChatGPT Adam Fry told reporters at a press event on Monday, November 2, that the volume of search queries run through ChatGPT now equals 20 percent of the volume run through Google. OpenAI counts a search as any query that results in a web search, excluding tasks such as defining a term or giving a simple how-to explanation, and Fry did not say where the Google figure came from. Fry also said ads “have not negatively impacted the product or the usage of the product,” that “most people do not seem to mind ads,” and that “ads have maybe shown us that we could be doing this more,” and he pointed to Intelligent UI, the visual and interactive responses launched with GPT-6, as the direction for search (“You’re talking to a canvas”). The Verge notes that OpenAI likely relies on Microsoft Bing for a large share of its searches alongside its own index. Source

3. OpenAI Names Jill Hazelbaker Chief Corporate Affairs Officer

OpenAI announced on November 3 that Jill Hazelbaker will join as Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, leading the company’s global communications and corporate positioning. Hazelbaker is currently listed on Uber’s leadership pages as its President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, and previously led communications and public policy at Snap and worked in communications at Google. The hire comes a day after OpenAI named former Army Secretary Dan Driscoll Senior Counselor for National Security Modernization. Source