The Overhang: GPT-6 Astra and Fable 5.1 Show AI's Untapped Capabilities

Ethan Mollick argues that existing models like GPT-6 Astra and Fable 5.1 can already do weeks of human work when properly guided, yet their capabilities remain barely used. He demonstrates this by having GPT-6 Astra turn the 1977 text adventure Zork into a playable 3D action game and having Fable 5.1 reconstruct Umberto Eco's library in 3D, placing roughly 5,000 identified books among 27,000 shelf slots. Mollick calls this gap the "capability overhang" and says users should pair AI with deep knowledge, wide knowledge, taste, and agency.