GPT-6 Astra Review - Hacking Hardware, Building 3D Games, and Automating My Business

It's not every day that a new model comes along and genuinely makes you feel more ambitious. For the past six months, I've had a list of standing tasks and fun projects that I've thrown every model at—Fable, even my beloved 5.6 Sol—and they all got stuck. Then I got early access to GPT-6 Astra. It didn't just make progress; it one-shotted a bunch of them.

GPT-6 Astra is OpenAI's latest and most intelligent model, and while it shows state-of-the-art performance across the board (especially in math), the real story for me is its incredible ability with computer use. It's not just about browsing; it can operate complex software like Excel, Unity, Blender, and all sorts of document editors. This capability changes how we can use AI for real work, turning hours of tedious clicking into minutes of hands-off automation.

In this episode, I wanted to go beyond the benchmarks and show you what this model can actually do. We're going to walk through some of the incredible things I built with it in just a few days. We’ll look at how it tackled a complex, node-based CRM workflow, automated our entire thumbnail creation process, and even helped me finally conquer my personal Everest: hacking a stubborn little Bluetooth speaker. We'll also build some ridiculously fun software, including a 90s-style AIM messenger and a 3D Barbie fashion game.

The New Era of Computer Use: Letting Astra Run My Apps

I spend a lot of time in browser-based tools with complex UIs. For a while, the dream of an agent that could just 'use the computer for you' felt distant. They were clumsy and couldn't handle real-world, messy interfaces. That's changed with Astra. I now spend about 90% of my day just watching it use my computer for me, and it’s a fascinating new way to work.

#### Workflow 1: Automating a Complex Lead-Routing Workflow

For my company, ChatPRD, we use a CRM with a node-based workflow builder to manage new leads. I was trying to set up a system to automatically route leads to either me or my business partner, Zach, and then draft a custom email. I spent an hour dragging nodes, futzing with buttons, and getting frustrated before I remembered: computer use!

I gave Astra a single instruction to take over.

The Prompt:

Hey, I have a workflow open to route leads to Zach or I. I want, as part of this flow, to generate with a custom agent, AI, an email that is custom to the lead submission, authored from either Zach or I, depending on who it's routed to, and, um, invite them to, uh, schedule with our calendar link, plus a bit about why we're excited to chat with them. Can you update the workflow in Chrome to do this? Thanks.

The Result:

Immediately, my Codex agent, powered by Astra, took over my Chrome browser. With my hands completely off the keyboard, it started adding new nodes, connecting logic, and defining new objects for the AI generation step. It built out the entire flow for generating the email, routing it to the right person, and sending a draft to our Slack for review.

This is a perfect example of what I mean when I say, "UI's back, baby!" We don't necessarily need to build CLI-first tools if our AI agents can reliably operate the user interfaces that we humans find intuitive. Astra's ability to navigate these complex web apps is a huge unlock.

#### Workflow 2: Generating YouTube Thumbnails from Flora to Figma

Our team has a multi-step process for creating thumbnails for this podcast. It's a bit of a chore that involves taking photos, processing them in a specific style, and then assembling them in a design tool. I decided to see if Astra could handle the entire thing.

Step 1: Creating Source Assets in Flora

We use a node-based tool called Flora to create our 'glowy,' stylized images for YouTube. I had Flora open with our existing thumbnail workflows and dropped in a few new photos I had just taken.

The Prompt:

We do a lot of thumbnail editing for our podcast in Flora. I have Flora open in Chrome right now with all of our podcast thumbnail upscaling workflows. I'm gonna drop you a couple images from the podcast I'm recording live right now, and can you generate the images that our designer Naomi would need to actually generate the thumbnails for this podcast?

The Result:

Astra inspected the existing (and very messy) workflow, imported my new images, and started building out the node graph to process them. It selected the right models (we use GPT Image 2), set the aspect ratio, and used our existing examples to write new prompts. It generated three fantastic source images for our designer, Naomi, to use. This automates the mindless part of the process, leaving the human to do what they do best: exercise good taste and give the final approval.

Step 2: Assembling the Thumbnail in Figma

Later, during a break, our designer had to jump into a meeting. We needed thumbnails done for this very episode. So, I asked Astra to take over my computer and use Figma to create them using the assets it had just generated. I haven't had much luck with agents using Figma in the past, but the result this time was pretty incredible.

It produced a perfect 'YouTube classic' thumbnail. We'll probably polish it a bit, but for a completely automated process, it's a massive success and a huge time-saver.

#### A Quick Detour: Using Astra for Automated QA

Another powerful use for computer use is automated QA. Recently, I was working on stabilizing the chat experience in ChatPRD and we were chasing some tricky race conditions. After shipping the PR, I simply told Astra, "Can you just, like, test this in Chrome?"

It pulled up the preview branch and went to work. For an hour and 45 minutes, it clicked through the app, sent chats, refreshed the page, and inspected the developer console for error logs. It was performing tests that would be incredibly tedious for a human to execute and found several issues we had missed. If you're a developer, you should absolutely be using this for QA.

Unlocking Ambitious Coding Projects

Astra isn't just good at clicking buttons; its coding abilities have allowed me to break through on projects that were previously stalled. It helped me get more ambitious and build things I wouldn't have even tried before.

#### Workflow 3: Finally Cracking the Product Intelligence Engine

For months, I've been trying to build a 'product intelligence' feature for ChatPRD. The idea is to ingest unstructured data from places like Intercom, GitHub, and Linear, de-duplicate it, derive insights, and generate an 'auto-wiki' of the product's current state. I threw every model at it, and they all failed to produce quality insights. Astra got it in what I'd call a 'three-shot.' The first prompt got it 90% of the way there, and a couple of follow-ups got it working perfectly.

The system it built is fantastic. It tells me my top three product priorities, generates graphs of issue trends over time, and creates a functional auto-wiki. This was a project where the technical execution wasn't the blocker; it was the model's ability to reason and produce high-quality output, and Astra nailed it.

#### Workflow 4: Hacking My Everest — The Divoom Pixel Speaker

I have this little Divoom Bluetooth pixel speaker. It's a closed device with no API, and it has become my personal Everest to hack it. Previous models barely let me flash a 'hello world' message. Astra blew the doors wide open.

First, it built me a web app that allows me to connect to the device and draw on it live with my mouse. Then, it built a CLI so I could have it talk to me about anything it wants.

I gave it this prompt:

Use the CLI again to tell our audience about the most recent episode of How I AI.

It went and found the latest episode information, and then streamed a scrolling message and a super cute animated graphic directly to the speaker's screen. The ability to finally interact with hardware in this meaningful way is a step-change. We did it, folks!

#### Workflow 5: Building Fun, Nostalgic, and 3D Apps

With these new capabilities, I've started building things just for fun—things I never would have been able to code myself.

• AIM-Style Codex Wrapper: Astra built me a Mac desktop app that wraps my Codex agent threads into a '90s-style AOL Instant Messenger client. Each thread is a buddy in my buddy list, and I can chat with my agents like it's 1999. It's so stinking cute and was built in a single shot.

• The 'Barbie Fashion Designer' Bench: I have a personal benchmark for 3D game creation based on the 90s CD-ROM game Barbie Fashion Designer. Past attempts with other models were, frankly, 'real uggo.' I asked Astra to build me a game with Blender, and while it's not perfect (the pants are more like chaps), it generated a playable 3D experience where you can customize a character's clothes, hair, and accessories, and watch her walk a runway. Again, one shot.

• 3D Family Journey App: I asked Astra to turn a simple chore app I made for my kids into a 3D journey they could explore. With a simple prompt—Can you make this a 3D, you know, journey where you can walk through different places?—it created a beautiful 3D world where my kids can walk their character to the library or 'Moon Water Pond' to complete tasks and collect rewards. I could never have built something like this on my own.

My Verdict on GPT-6 Astra

GPT-6 Astra is a banger. It's going to be my daily driver. Its ability to handle complex UI navigation and ambitious coding projects is a true step change. It has fundamentally made me more ambitious about what I can build, both for my business and for fun.

This is just the beginning. As soon as you get access, you should be using it. We'll be doing a follow-up episode soon, putting Astra head-to-head with Fable 5.1 and other new models on the official How I AI bench, including the blind Claire taste test. But for now, please go out there, build something incredible, and show me what you create.

Thanks for joining How I AI, and I cannot wait to see what you do with this new model.

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