OpenAI today announced an improved version of its most capable artificial intelligence model to date--one that takes even more time to deliberate over questions--just a day after Google announced its first model of this type. OpenAI's new model, called o3, replaces o1, which the company introduced in September. Like o1, the new model spends time ruminating over a problem in order to deliver better answers to questions that require step-by-step logical reasoning. The o3 model scores much higher on several measures than its predecessor, OpenAI says, including ones that measure complex coding-related skills and advanced math and science competency. It is three times better than o1 at answering questions posed by ARC-AGI, a benchmark designed to test an AI models' ability to reason over problems they're encountering for the first time.

OpenAI has already made some big changes to Codex, the AI-powered coding assistant the company announced last month. The system now accepts commands in plain English and outputs live, working code, letting someone build a game or web app without so much as naming a variable. A few lucky coders (and, one assumes, non-coders) will be able to kick the tires on this new Codex API in a free private beta. Codex is best thought of as OpenAI's versatile language engine, GPT-3, but trained only on code instead of ordinary written material. That lets it do things like complete lines of code or entire sections, but when it was announced it wasn't really something a non-coder would be able to easily interact with.

OpenAI has already made some big changes to Codex, the AI-powered coding assistant the company announced last month. The system now accepts commands in plain English and outputs live, working code, letting someone build a game or web app without so much as naming a variable. A few lucky coders (and, one assumes, non-coders) will be able to kick the tires on this new Codex API in a free private beta. Codex is best thought of as OpenAI's versatile language engine, GPT-3, but trained only on code instead of ordinary written material. That lets it do things like complete lines of code or entire sections, but when it was announced it wasn't really something a non-coder would be able to easily interact with.