OpenAI announced the launch of a new AI model, “GPT-4o Mini,” on Thursday, marking the latest step in expanding its popular chatbot’s capabilities.
The company described this release as “the most capable and cost-efficient small model available today,” with plans to integrate image, video, and audio features in the future.
GPT-4o Mini is a derivative of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s fastest and most powerful model, launched in May during a livestreamed event with executives. The “o” in GPT-4o stands for omni, and this model boasts enhanced audio, video, and text capabilities, supporting 50 different languages with improved speed and quality.
Backed by Microsoft and valued at over $80 billion, OpenAI, founded in 2015, is under pressure to maintain its lead in the generative AI market while finding ways to monetize its technology amid high costs for processors and infrastructure.
The mini AI model is part of OpenAI’s effort to lead in “multimodality,” the ability to offer various types of AI-generated media, such as text, images, audio, and video, within one tool: ChatGPT.
OpenAI Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap explained to CNBC last year, “The world is multimodal. We process and engage with the world through seeing, hearing, and speaking—much more than just text. It always felt incomplete to limit these powerful models to just text and code.”
GPT-4o Mini will be available to free ChatGPT users, as well as ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers, starting Thursday. It will be accessible to ChatGPT Enterprise users next week, according to the company’s press release.