- OpenAI released the full version of its o1 reasoning model on Thursday.
- The o1 model, initially previewed in September, is now multimodal, faster, and more precise.
- It was released as part of OpenAI's 12-day product and demo launch, dubbed "shipmas".
On Thursday, OpenAI released the full version of its hot new reasoning model as part of the company's 12-day sprint of product launches and demos.
The model, known as o1, was released in a "preview" mode in September. The latest version is more accurate, faster, and multimodal, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said during day one of the company's live stream. It makes major mistakes about 34% less often compared to the o1 preview mode, per an internal evaluation.
The model, which seems geared toward scientists, engineers, and coders, is adept at solving thorny problems. It's the first model that OpenAI has trained to "think" before it responds, meaning it tends to give more detailed and accurate responses than other AI helpers, company execs said on Thursday.
In a demonstration, they uploaded a picture of a hand-drawn system for a data center in space, showing off o1's multimodal abilities. They asked the program to come up with an estimate for the "cooling panel area" required to operate it. After about 10 seconds, o1 produced what would appear to a layperson as a sophisticated essay, rife with math equations, ending with what is apparently the right answer.
But execs think o1 should be useful in daily life, too. Whereas the preview version might think for a while if you merely said hi, now it's designed to be faster for simpler queries. In Thursday's livestream, it beat the old version at listing Roman emperors by a margin of 19 seconds.
All eyes are on OpenAI's releases over the next week or so, amid a debate about how much more dramatically models like o1 can improve. Tech leaders are divided on this issue, with some like Marc Andreessen saying AI models aren't getting noticeably better and are all converging to perform at roughly similar levels.
With its 12-day deluge of product news dubbed "shipmas," OpenAI may be looking to quiet some of the cynics while spreading awkward holiday cheer.
"It'll be a way to show you what we've been working on and a little holiday present from us," Altman said on Thursday.