OpenAI's next-generation o3 model will arrive early next year

After nearly two weeks of announcements, OpenAI capped off its 12 Days of OpenAI livestream series with a preview of its next-generation frontier model. "Out of respect for friends at Telefónica (owner of the O2 cellular network), and in the grand tradition of OpenAI being really, truly bad at names, it's called o3," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told those watching the announcement on YouTube. Instead, OpenAI is first making o3 available to researchers who want help with safety testing. OpenAI also announced the existence of o3 mini. Altman said the company plans to launch that model "around the end of January," with o3 following "shortly after that."