Eleanor Berger's September 2026 lineup: GPT-6 Astra as daily driver, Muse Spark surprises

intellectronica · x · 2026-09-12

Eleanor Berger shares the models and subscriptions she actually uses day to day:

• Method: she tests most new models obsessively but keeps only a small curated roster — benchmarks aren't enough, real experience is irreplaceable.
• Cost stance: willing to spend on good models but always hunting for bargains.
• Daily driver: OpenAI GPT-6 Astra at light/lowmedium effort — excellent at browser/computer automation and interactive sessions; a larger pre-train relying less on reasoning chains makes it remarkably fast. Token cost is 2.5x 5.6-Sol but effective cost at low effort is similar while faster; at medium effort she calls it AGI-ish intelligence she hasn't seen before.
• Also flags two surprising releases from big US companies this year: Meta's Muse Spark 1.3 (maximum effort) and xAI's Grok.

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