OpenAI Strawberry is here - it's called o1-preview and it might be the most human ChatGPT ever

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Fast answers aren't always the best, which might be the key takeaway from the arrival of OpenAI Strawberry – now called o1-preview – a new ChatGPT reasoning model that takes longer to give you what might be vastly better answers.

OpenAI announced the preview release on Thursday in a blog post, saying that it will arrive in ChatGPT and the generative AI company's API. I can confirm that the o1-preview and a faster, cheaper model o1-mini are both live in our ChatGPT Plus account. The new models will not yet appear in the free ChatGPT accounts, though.

Strawberry has been eagerly anticipated because of its possible human-like-thinking capabilities. In the weeks before this announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has teased us with numerous cheeky fruit references, but has also made it clear in recent months that generative AI was set to make a significant leap forward.

In the blog post, OpenAI explained, "We trained these models to spend more time thinking through problems before they respond, much like a person would. Through training, they learn to refine their thinking process, try different strategies, and recognize their mistakes."

Ph.D intelligence

OpenAI claims this more powerful o1-preview has performed "similarly to PhD students on challenging benchmark tasks in physics, chemistry, and biology." And that's key here. o1-preview is a generative model that might have the greatest application in academia, not for helping you write an engaging prom-posal.

One example given in a video accompanying the blog is gene sequencing. In it, a scientist notes that while humans can't keep track of everything in gene sequencing, an AI can. The scientist refers to the new model as "chat with reasoning" and shows how when she types in a question, there's a moment where o1-preview says "Thinking." The value of it is that it keeps her from rabbit-holing into the wrong part of gene theory.

However, o1-preview is not a replacement for ChatGPT-4o, which is barely a month old. The new model isn't searching the web or capable of ingesting files and images. Though, that will likely show up at some point.

If biology and math are not your thing, the lighter and slightly more agile o1-mini might be for you, and is also live in ChatGPT Plus now. It's particularly adept at coding.

You can try out the new models in ChatGPT Plus ($20 a month) by logging in and then selecting the model drop-down menu. You'll see o1-preview, and o1-mini have been added to the list as of this story publishing.

It will be interesting to see what people do with the model formerly known as Strawberry and if people grow impatient while waiting for an o1-preview to deliver answers. Perhaps they'll feel better if they can see that the extra reasoning is resulting in more useful answers for some really big problems.

A 38-year industry veteran and award-winning journalist, Lance has covered technology since PCs were the size of suitcases and “on line” meant “waiting.” He’s a former Lifewire Editor-in-Chief, Mashable Editor-in-Chief, and, before that, Editor in Chief of PCMag.com and Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff Davis, Inc. He also wrote a popular, weekly tech column for Medium called The Upgrade.

Lance Ulanoff makes frequent appearances on national, international, and local news programs including Live with Kelly and Mark, the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNBC, CNN, and the BBC.