According to sources, OpenAI to launch Orion, a new AI model up to 100 times more powerful than GPT-4, before the end of this year. OpenAI is drawing a line under those plans.
Update 28/10: OpenAI itself denies the rumors about Orion. “We have no plans to release a model codenamed Orion this year,” the company clearly states in an email to TechCrunch. “We do plan to release a lot more great technology,” the company is willing to say. What that may mean will become clear in the coming weeks.
Original article 25/10: We can expect some more from OpenAI this year. The Verge has heard from well-placed sources that OpenAI plans to launch its next big LLM in December. In fact, it’s already possible that Microsoft may get the scoop at the Ignite conference in November. The model has the internal name Orion, but if OpenAI continues to follow its naming scheme, it would be the long-awaited GPT-5.
Much is not yet known about Orion, a name that refers to a galaxy visible in winter in the northern hemisphere. The model is said to be up to 100 times more powerful than GPT-4, The Verge knows. Training of the model was completed in September.
The launch of the o1 model, called Strawberry, proved to be the perfect stepping stone to Orion. OpenAI o1 has a much more comprehensive reasoning capability. The model was also used by OpenAI to provide synthetic data for Orion training.
Not for the general public
Unlike previous launches of GPT models, Orion would not immediately be made available to the general public via ChatGPT, according to The Verge. Instead, OpenAI plans to first provide access to companies it works closely with so they can build their own products and features.
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This is in line with the company’s new direction, OpenAI. The company is increasingly transforming itself from a nonprofit research organization into a for-profit commercial company. As a result, OpenAI must think of its most lucrative customers and partners first. A $6.6 billion capital injection is powering that transformation.
General intelligence
With Orion, OpenAI will take another big step toward the company’s ultimate dream: developing general artificial intelligence on par with the human brain. Not everyone in the organization seems to be backing those plans equally hard.
Miles Brundage, a senior scientist at the company, submitted his resignation this week because, in his own words, “the world is far from ready for general artificial intelligence, including OpenAI itself.” He is one of many leaders within OpenAI who recently left out of dissatisfaction with the company’s current direction, which prioritizes commercial interests over safe and responsible research.