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OpenAI has officially launched its o1 model, transitioning out of preview to become a core feature of the ChatGPT platform. And now, it can also analyze images — a hugely helpful feature upgrade as it enables users to upload photos and have the AI chatbot respond to them, giving them detailed plans on how to build a birdhouse entirely from a single candid photo of one, for one fun example.
In another, potentially more serious and impressive example, it is now capable of helping design data centers from sketches.
Initially available to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers globally, o1 represents a significant evolution in reasoning model capabilities, including better handling of complex tasks, image-based reasoning, and enhanced accuracy. Enterprise and Education users will gain access to the model next week.
This release coincides with OpenAI’s rollout of a new subscription tier, ChatGPT Pro, which leaked ahead of its announcement today.
Priced at $200 per month, ChatGPT Pro is targeted at professionals and organizations requiring scalable, research-grade AI tools. It offers unlimited access to OpenAI’s most advanced capabilities, including exclusive versions of the o1 reasoning model, GPT-4o, and the Advanced Voice feature.
OpenAI co-founder and CEO and Sam Altman announced the news on a YouTube livestream on December 5, 2024 at 10 am PT as part of OpenAI’s ongoing “12 Days of OpenAI” series of new updates timed to coincide with the end of the year and winter holidays (i.e. “12 Days of Christmas”).
o1 advances
The o1 model family, first introduced in September 2024, aims to tackle real-world challenges with refined reasoning, coding, and mathematical capabilities.
Compared to its preview version, the updated o1 delivers faster responses and a 34% reduction in major errors on difficult problems. It is also capable of analyzing and explaining image uploads, unlocking new applications in fields like healthcare and engineering.
Early benchmarks highlight the model’s competitive edge. For example, o1-preview successfully solved 83% of problems in the International Mathematics Olympiad qualifying exam, a sharp improvement from GPT-4o’s 13% success rate.
OpenAI’s updates also include safety enhancements, with the o1-preview scoring 84 on a rigorous safety test, compared to 22 for its predecessor.
These advancements position o1 as a versatile tool for users in STEM fields and beyond. OpenAI has indicated plans to further expand the model’s functionality, including web browsing, file uploads, and richer API integration to support vision, function calling, and structured outputs.
In addition, OpenAI researcher Noam Brown took to X to confirm that o1 was the long-rumored OpenAI model codenamed “Strawberry” internally, and that it “can do a little better than just counting how many r’s are in ‘strawberry’” — a rhetorical understatement if I’ve ever seen one. Brown posted screenshots showing how the model via ChatGPT was able to construct an entire 3 paragraph essay about strawberries without using a single letter “e” after thinking for 45 seconds.
Premium pricing
The introduction of ChatGPT Pro represents OpenAI’s latest move to cater to high-demand users. Priced at $200 per month, this tier provides unlimited access to enhanced tools, such as a high-compute version of o1, which dedicates additional processing power to deliver optimal solutions for challenging queries.
Subscribers also gain access to GPT-4o, known for its advanced natural language generation capabilities, and the Advanced Voice feature for speech-based interactions.
ChatGPT Pro’s pricing significantly exceeds other tiers, such as ChatGPT Plus at $20 per month or ChatGPT Team at $30 per month, reflecting its specialized focus on delivering peak performance for complex applications.
However, encourage the use of AI in societal-benefit fields, OpenAI has announced the ChatGPT Pro Grant Program.
The initiative will initially award 10 grants to leading medical researchers, providing free access to ChatGPT Pro tools.
A well-timed release
The launch of o1 and ChatGPT Pro comes amid intensifying competition in the AI industry.
Chinese rivals, including Alibaba and DeepSeek, have released reasoning models like Marco-o1 and R1-Lite-Preview, are encroaching fast, challenging OpenAI’s dominance with open-source solutions and eclipsing o1-preview on certain third-party benchmarks.
These developments reflect the growing demand for large reasoning models (LRMs) capable of handling complex problem-solving tasks.
As OpenAI continues to refine its offerings, the rollout of o1 and ChatGPT Pro marks a milestone in its quest to provide accessible, high-performance AI tools. Whether these developments can maintain OpenAI’s leadership in an increasingly crowded market remains to be seen.
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