OpenAI’s much-anticipated Project Strawberry, now officially known as o1, has finally arrived, surprising many analysts who predicted its release wouldn’t happen for weeks, if not months. This new generation of AI models, o1-preview and its lighter counterpart o1-mini, are now available for use and evaluation, and here’s how you can get access.
OpenAI has been vocal about its ambitions to create Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), and o1 represents a substantial step in that direction. This model, and its future iterations, are designed to be ‘reasoning’ models, spending more time contemplating before responding. This approach allows o1 to tackle complex tasks and solve problems beyond the capabilities of previous AI models in science, coding, and math. The models reportedly think in a human-like manner, refining their thought processes, experimenting with different approaches, and learning from their mistakes through ongoing training.
OpenAI claims o1-preview performs on par with Ph.D. students in physics, chemistry, and biology, demonstrating impressive performance on benchmark tests in these subjects. o1 also shines in coding and math, scoring 83% on an International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO) qualifying exam (GPT-4 only scored 13%) and reaching the 89th percentile in a Codeforces competition against human opponents.
For those who prefer a lighter model, o1-mini is a streamlined version of o1-preview. It reportedly costs 80% less to operate than its larger counterpart, making it particularly adept at coding analysis and generation tasks.
The o1-preview models launched on September 12 for ChatGPT Plus and Teams subscribers, while enterprise and educational users will gain access the following week. The models have been developed with an emphasis on safety, utilizing a novel training program that leverages o1’s reasoning abilities to ensure compliance with safety and alignment guidelines. OpenAI highlights the impressive results of their safety testing, where o1 achieved a score of 84 in resisting jailbreak attempts (compared to GPT-4’s score of 22).
If you’re eager to experience the power of o1-preview for yourself, you’ll need a ChatGPT Plus subscription, priced at $20 per month. Simply click on the ‘Upgrade Plan’ option in the bottom left corner of the navigation pane and follow the prompts to enter your payment details. Once your subscription is activated, select either o1-preview or o1-mini from the model picker on the left side of the ChatGPT homepage. Keep in mind that access is limited, even for paying users, with a weekly message limit of 30 for o1-preview and 50 for o1-mini. OpenAI plans to make o1-mini available for free tier users in the future, though the company has not yet set a date for this rollout.
