OpenAI announced on Friday that it was testing two new reasoning AI models, called O3 and O3 small, as part of an increasing battle with competitors like Google to develop more intelligent models that can solve challenging issues.
TakeAway Points:
- OpenAI said on Friday it was testing new reasoning AI models, o3 and o3 mini, in a sign of growing competition with rivals such as Google to create smarter models capable of tackling complex problems.
- Bitcoin fell sharply on Friday amid broader caution in risky assets.
- Bitcoin traded at around $92,808.07 at 6:57 a.m. ET on Friday, down around 9% from 24 hours before, where it was priced above $102,000, according to Coin Metrics.
- The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high above $108,000 just this week, but has since sold off aggressively.
OpenAI reveals “o3” reasoning AI models that are now undergoing testing
CEO Sam Altman said the AI startup plans to launch o3 mini by the end of January and full o3 after that, as more robust large language models could outperform existing models and attract new investments and users.
Microsoft-backed OpenAI released o1 AI models in September designed to spend more time processing queries to solve hard problems.
The o1 models are capable of reasoning through complex tasks and can solve more challenging problems than previous models in science, coding, and math, the AI firm said in a blog post.
OpenAI’s new o3 and o3 mini models, which are in internal safety testing currently, will be more powerful than its previously launched o1 models, the company said.
The GenAI pioneer said it was opening up an application process for external researchers to test o3 models ahead of the public release, which will close on Jan. 10.
OpenAI had triggered an AI arms race after it launched ChatGPT in November 2022. The growing popularity of the company and new product launches helped OpenAI in closing a $6.6 billion funding round in October.
Rival Alphabet’s Google released the second generation of its AI model Gemini earlier in December, as the search giant aims to reclaim the lead in the AI technology race.
Bitcoin trades around $97,000, recovering from earlier losses
Bitcoin hovered around the $97,000 mark on Friday, recovering from earlier losses amid broader investor caution toward risky assets.
Bitcoin dipped below the $93,000 mark earlier in the day before trading above that price in volatile trade.
The digital asset was last trading at $96,597.36, according to Coin Metrics, hovering near the level attained about 24 hours ago. The cryptocurrency hit an all-time high above $108,000 just this week, but has since sold off aggressively.
The Federal Reserve rattled markets in recent days as it signalled fewer interest rate cuts next year. Equity markets took a hit, filtering through to crypto assets.
The price of bitcoin has more than doubled this year, supported by several factors, including the launch of spot exchange-traded funds and the U.S. presidential election win of Donald Trump. He has pledged pro-crypto policies and his victory at the polls helped propel bitcoin to its latest record high.
With some markets on edge due to the Fed, some of the steam has come out of assets that have seen big gains this year.
Tesla, which has been another big beneficiary of Trump’s win, continued its postelection slide with shares falling on Friday in premarket trade. Other big names, such as Nvidia, were also lower during the session.
Bitcoin’s fall also dragged down other cryptocurrencies. Ether was trading around 3,446.15.
