OpenAI says GPT-6 Astra designed a hardware device from scratch in under a week

OpenAI researchers used GPT-6 Astra to design a hardware device for the Codex coding agent in less than one week, managing tasks ranging from enclosure development to circuit board creation. While the process required multiple iterations to address manufacturing tolerances, the project demonstrates how advanced AI models can accelerate integrated hardware and software engineering cycles. This experiment marks a shift toward using large language models to automate complex, multi-disciplinary product design tasks that previously required extensive manual input from specialized engineering teams.