ChatGPT has had two useful changes this week, especially if you want it to do more than answer questions. OpenAI has added GPT-6 Sol and GPT-6 Luna to ChatGPT Work and Codex. Sol is intended for more demanding professional work, while Luna brings lower-cost access for work you can supervise and check. Astra remains the model for the most important jobs. At the same time, Voice in Work now works on web and mobile for eligible accounts. That means you can talk through a task while you are away from your desk, then have ChatGPT create a document, presentation or spreadsheet, use a connected app or work in a browser. If you stop the voice conversation before the task is done, it can keep going in text. The sensible first test is not "run my business from my phone." Try one contained job. After a client call, say: "Turn these notes into a follow-up email, a list of agreed actions and a one-page brief. Mark anything you are not certain about. Do not send anything." You still review any action that needs approval on screen, but voice makes it easier to get the job moving before you forget the details. Which job would you rather explain out loud than type from scratch? Sources: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-sol-and-luna/ and https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes

Alright, we've got a new ChatGPT model to play with. It's called GPT-6 Astra. I know, another model name to remember! But this one does look like a pretty big step forward. The interesting bit isn't all the benchmark scores. It's that Astra is meant to be much better at actually getting on with a job, rather than just telling you how to do it. OpenAI says it can handle multi-step tasks across browsers and everyday business tools. That includes online research, filling in forms, updating records, organising a calendar, and creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations and websites. What it can do will depend on which ChatGPT tools you have access to, of course. It should also be better at knowing when to make a sensible assumption and when it genuinely needs to ask you something. Hopefully that means less babysitting, without it charging off like an unsupervised intern with admin access. One important thing to know is that ordinary ChatGPT customers can't use it just yet. Right now, access is limited to approved organisations that apply for it. OpenAI says Astra should start rolling out to ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users over the next few days. So don't waste half an hour hunting through your settings or repeatedly refreshing the model picker. It isn't hiding from you. We just need to wait for the wider rollout. When it arrives, let's give it something more interesting than a trivia question. Give it a real job, the information it needs, and a clear idea of what "done" looks like. Then come back and tell us how it got on. What are you going to try first? Official announcement: https://openai.com/index/gpt-6-astra/

Before you buy another tool because a LinkedIn post made it look magical, give ChatGPT a proper research job. Pick the problem you need to solve, then give it your current process, the must-have features, budget range, and the three or four tools you are considering. Ask for a decision pack, not a verdict. For each option, have it show what it can do, what it cannot do, the likely setup effort, pricing source, integrations you actually need, and the questions you should ask before paying. Crucially, ask it to link every claim to its source and mark anything it could not verify. You could finish with: "Create a one-page decision pack with a comparison table, the gaps against our requirements, questions for each supplier, and a short recommendation only where the evidence supports it. Do not invent pricing, features or integrations." That gives you something far more useful than a pile of tabs and a vague feeling that one of them probably looked good. What purchase decision would you most like to make with a bit less tab chaos?

OpenAI has released GPT-Live, a new generation of voice models that now powers ChatGPT Voice. It started rolling out globally yesterday across iOS, Android and the web. The headline change: it can listen and speak at the same time. Every previous version of Voice worked in turns. You talked, it waited for silence, then it answered. That is why it kept butting in when you paused to think, and why the whole thing felt a bit like a walkie talkie. GPT-Live processes what you say continuously, so you can interrupt it mid-sentence, pause to gather your thoughts without it jumping in, or tell it to stay quiet and just listen. It even gives the small acknowledgements a real person does, the odd "mhmm" so you know it is following. The second change is the one I think matters most for business use. When you ask for something that needs real work, a web search, proper reasoning, digging through a file, it hands that job to GPT-5.5 in the background and keeps the conversation going while it runs. You can also pick a reasoning level: Instant for quick answers, Medium or High when you want it to think harder before it speaks. A few practical details worth knowing. GPT-Live-1 becomes the default for paid plans, with a mini version as the default for free users. It can now show visual cards while you talk, things like weather, stocks and sports. It is better at ignoring background noise. And at launch it does not support video or screen sharing, so if you use those, the older voice modes are still available. Here is my take on why this deserves your attention. Voice has been the feature most business owners try once and quietly abandon, because talking to a turn-based bot feels like effort. The interesting shift is that voice can now hold a natural conversation while real work happens underneath it. That starts to look less like a gimmick and more like thinking out loud with an assistant. The obvious first test: next time you are driving or walking, talk through a business problem with it for ten minutes and see what you come back with.