Early Astra agent test flops: free-rein CUDA kernel optimization fails on architecture
gandamu_ml · x · 2026-09-09
- The author gave Astra its first shot at an ambitious task: optimizing CUDA kernels, letting it choose the direction freely. It went poorly.
- His diagnosis: the task is complex enough to involve scheduling, branching, etc. Instead of developing an overall architecture and strategy that could plausibly work, the agent kept perfecting individual components without ever demonstrating — or being able to demonstrate — that the whole thing would work.
Related event: Astra Agent Fails at Autonomous CUDA Kernel Optimization(2 posts)→
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