gafam.ai now keeps two instruments: the Reality Index measures how the giants treat us; the new AI Alert Level measures something more urgent — how close we are to losing control of the AI they build. A five-stage scale, currently at Level 4, Critical. Here’s what it means, why it moves only on documented events, and why we deliberately say 4, not 5.
WARNING TWO. Three weeks ago we warned where AI was heading. Now the warning comes from inside: the builders themselves are begging it to slow down — one even asked Congress if pausing would be legal — and the machine won’t stop. The real danger was never a malevolent mind. It’s a human race no human controls. And the only ones left who can reach for the brake are us.
OpenAI, long a regulation skeptic, now asks the US for binding AI safety rules — the very framework Europe built and was mocked for. A genuine vindication of the European approach. But the rules OpenAI favours are capability-based, which critics warn could entrench the dominant labs. Take the vindication, then read the fine print.
A day after OpenAI declared the AGI era with GPT-6 Astra, the strongest case for caution comes from inside OpenAI. The president says AGI has arrived; the CEO says “not quite”; the official text avoids the word; independent benchmarks decline to crown it. Impressed by the machine, patient with the label — and why Europe must be able to check claims the labs can’t settle themselves.
OpenAI’s president says AGI has arrived with GPT-6 Astra. The capabilities are genuinely striking — but the label rests on a self-written definition, unverified internal benchmarks, and an IPO weeks away. Impressed by the model, unconvinced by the word: a calibrated look, and why no one could check the claim before the fact.