OpenAI recently said in a blog post that ChatGPT has a new model called o1. This model is taught to tackle harder problems, analyse its responses, test multiple tactics, and improve its thinking.

The new model, which is presently divided into two versions, o1-preview and o1-mini, places among the top 500 students in the US for the Math Olympiad and Codeforces competitive programming contests and “exceeds PhD-level accuracy on a benchmark of physics, biology, and chemistry problems,” according to OpenAI.

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“We’ve noticed that this model has fewer hallucinations,” research head at OpenAI Jerry Tworek explains in an interview with The Verge. It was trained using a novel optimisation approach and a specially designed training dataset. o1 employs reinforcement learning, which trains it through incentives and punishments, instead of previous models that sought to replicate patterns in their training data. 

How is ChatGPT’s o1 model different from the previous ones?

What sets o1 apart from earlier models is its ability to “think,” as mentioned in a report from The Information on Tuesday. This means the model doesn’t just start throwing out answers immediately; generating a thoughtful response can take about 10 to 20 seconds. The o1 model, sometimes called “Strawberry” by those watching (maybe because of that viral trend where influencers ask AIs how many “Rs” are in “strawberry”), gets rid of the need for “chain-of-thought prompting.” This means users don’t have to throw extra questions at the AI to determine its reasoning. The model is set up to show its reasoning automatically.

Since o1 is still in preview, there are a few significant limitations. Unlike GPT-4o, o1 doesn’t have web access, can’t handle file uploads, and has many API restrictions for developers. The o1-mini model is about giving quick answers to questions in STEM fields. 

Since every major tech company wants to outdo the other and produce “agentive” AIs that can finish tasks for you, competition in the AI sector is only getting more intense. The search engine behemoth introduced a more potent version of Gemini at Google I/O earlier this year. It can now hold a more genuine conversation with you and even let you cut it off mid-sentence. Additionally, Apple increased the processing power of its most recent phones during the iPhone 16 announcement event earlier this week to support Apple Intelligence, a collection of AI capabilities for iPhones supported by OpenAI technology.

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Though tech stocks have reached record highs in the previous two years due to the euphoria surrounding AI, investors may be becoming more wary. Chip manufacturer Nvidia, which powers many of the best AI data centres in the world, witnessed a 10% decline last week. While the IT community may be losing interest in AI while it waits for more tangible outcomes from services, OpenAI has attained an astounding $150 billion value.

ChatGPT o1’s availability

The o1-preview model is rolling out now for ChatGPT Plus and Team users. ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu users will gain access next week. Developers can also use the API for prototyping.