OpenAI will launch an AI product it claims is capable of reasoning, allowing it to solve hard problems in maths, coding and science in a critical step towards achieving humanlike cognition in machines. The AI models, known as o1, are touted as a sign of the progression of technological capabilities over the past few years as companies race to create ever more sophisticated AI systems. In particular, there is a fresh scramble under way among tech groups, including Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic, to create software that can act independently as so-called agents — personalised bots that are supposed to help people work, create or communicate better and interface with the digital world. According to OpenAI, the models will be integrated into ChatGPT Plus starting on Thursday. They are designed to be useful for scientists and developers, rather than general users. The company said the o1 models far outperformed existing models such as GPT-4o in a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad, where it scored 83 per cent compared with 13 per cent for the latter. Mira Murati, the company’s chief technology officer, said the models also opened up avenues in understanding how AI works. “We get visibility into the model’s thinking . . . we can observe its thought process, step by step,” she told the Financial Times. The new models use a technique called reinforcement learning to approach problems. They take a longer time to analyse queries, which makes them more costly than GPT models, but are more consistent and sophisticated in their responses. “What it’s doing during that time is . . . exploring different strategies for answering your query,” said Mark Chen, the lead researcher on the project. “If it realises it’s made mistakes, it can go and correct those things.”
Full report : OpenAI launches AI models it says are capable of reasoning.
