OpenAI's Astra Raises Stakes for Google, Apple in AI Assistant Race

OpenAI’s May 13th reveal of Project Astra, a real-time, multimodal AI assistant, fundamentally redefines the benchmark for human-computer interaction, shifting the battleground from text-based queries to fluid, conversational intelligence. Coming just before Google I/O, this was a strategic pre-emptive strike, rendering many anticipated "AI agent" demos instantly obsolete. This move pressures not just Google