OpenAI says GPT-6 is much better with legacy programming languages such as COBOL and Fortran

The DecoderOct 20, 2026Oct 20, 2026, 12:40 PM AST

COBOL and Fortran are old languages with little public code to learn from, yet they still run much of banking and science software. OpenAI built tests that ask models to write a database engine in 20 languages and to translate COBOL into modern code; it says GPT-6 passes 87.4 percent of tests on average and reaches up to 97.9 percent accuracy on COBOL migration.

Summary written with AI by HowTechMoves, based on reporting by The Decoder.

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