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OpenAI Establishes Five-Level System To Gauge AI Progress
The ChatGPT creator revealed the new classification system to employees during a recent company-wide meeting.
OpenAI has introduced a five-tier framework to monitor its advancement toward developing artificial intelligence that can rival and even surpass human capabilities.
The initiative is the latest in the startup’s efforts to enhance public understanding of AI safety and was shared with staff during a company-wide meeting on Tuesday, July 9. OpenAI intends to present the levels to investors and other stakeholders, which span from conversational AI (Level 1) to AI that can independently operate an entire organization (Level 5).
During the meeting, OpenAI executives informed employees that the company is currently at the first level but is nearing the second level, known as Reasoners. This tier represents AI systems capable of basic problem-solving tasks comparable to a human with a doctorate-level education.
In the same session, OpenAI’s leadership demonstrated a research project featuring the GPT-4 AI model, showcasing new skills indicative of human-like reasoning. For years, the company has been working towards achieving what is often referred to as artificial general intelligence (AGI), which entails creating computers that can outperform humans in most tasks. Such systems do not yet exist, though OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has previously suggested that AGI might be achievable later this decade.
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Determining the criteria for AGI has been a topic of ongoing debate among AI researchers. In a paper published in November 2023, researchers at Google DeepMind proposed a framework of five ascending AI levels, including “expert” and “superhuman”, which resembles the classification system used in the automotive industry for self-driving cars.
According to OpenAI’s proposed levels, the third tier on the road to AGI is called Agents, representing AI systems that can perform tasks autonomously over several days. Level 4 describes AI that can generate new innovations, while the highest level, Organizations, refers to AI capable of managing entire enterprises.
The framework, developed by OpenAI executives and senior leaders, is considered a work in progress. The company plans to collect feedback from employees, investors, and its board, with the possibility of refining the levels over time.
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Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
Egypt’s telecom regulator says $57.6 billion moved through more than 57 million wallets in six months. And one operator handled 77% of the value.
Egypt’s mobile wallets handled EGP 2.96 trillion ($57.6 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2026, according to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority – a 56% rise on the EGP 1.90 trillion ($36.9 billion) recorded a year earlier. Transactions grew faster still, up 62% to 2.22 billion, while registered wallets climbed 23% to 57.01 million.
On one reading, that is exactly what Egypt’s regulators have been pushing for: a payments system that runs through telecom-linked wallets rather than banknotes. But the same data shows how far cash still reaches into it. Cash withdrawals made up just 12% of the transactions taking money out of wallets, yet 75% of the value withdrawn or spent.
Money arrives mostly from bank accounts: transfers through InstaPay accounted for 78% of deposit transactions and 58% of the value deposited, while incoming remittances from abroad made up 3% of deposit transactions but 10% of their value. Once inside, it largely moves between wallets – wallet-to-wallet transfers accounted for 54% of all transactions and 67% of total value, with mobile and internet top-ups a distant second at 25% of volume. In effect, the wallet is serving as a transfer layer: the place money passes through between the bank account and the banknote.
That layer also runs predominantly through one operator. Vodafone Cash held 53% of registered wallets and 57% of active ones, but handled 69% of transactions and 77% of their value. Its nearest rival, e& money, held 23% of registered wallets but 14% of transaction value; Orange Cash 20% and 8%; WE Pay 4% of wallets. How many of the 57.01 million are active is not stated.
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Adoption is rather uneven in other respects. Men held 38 million wallets, or 67% of the total, against 19 million held by women. Users aged 26 to 45 accounted for half of all wallets, and Cairo alone had 10.6 million, or 19% of the national total, with Giza next at 6.5 million.
The NTRA says it is continuing to work with telecom operators on the regulatory framework for wallet services, part of a wider effort to expand electronic payments and financial inclusion. Its own figures show that effort succeeding on the way in. On the way out, three-quarters of the value still leaves as cash.
Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
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