OpenAI plans to release its next frontier AI model, internally codenamed Orion, by December of this year, The Verge reported on Thursday. Unlike previous releases, the company reportedly plans to gradually release the model to trusted partners before rolling it out broadly through ChatGPT.
An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch that the report is not accurate, but would not provide further details.
The Verge writes that Microsoft engineers will have access to Orion as early as November, although it's unclear what OpenAI will ultimately call this model. The o1 series of models was codenamed “strawberry” within OpenAI for several months before its release.
OpenAI's next Frontier model release has a lot to offer. The AI startup just raised $6.6 billion in funding at a $157 billion valuation, and investors expect OpenAI to continue releasing increasingly high-performance models to lead the tech world.