Sam Altman says reports of OpenAI's next frontier model are "fake news and random fantasy" as speculations of a December launch mount

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Sam Altman says OpenAI won't launch a next-gen AI model codenamed Orion in December.

Sam Altman, chief executive officer of OpenAI, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit in San Francisco, California, US, on Thursday, Nov. 16, 2023.
(Image credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

What you need to know

  • A new report suggests OpenAI is gearing up to ship a next-gen frontier AI model code-named Orion in December.
  • The report further suggested that the ChatGPT maker would give companies it works closely with priority access to the model, including Microsoft.
  • Sam Altman responded to the claims on X, branding it as "fake news out of control."

OpenAI has had a lot on its slate in the past few months, between the mass exodus of high-profile executives, bankruptcy reports, and recent claims that it's breaking the U.S. copyright law. It's been over a month since the ChatGPT maker unveiled its latest series of next-gen AI models, including OpenAI o1 and o1-mini which ship with advanced reasoning capabilities across coding, math, and science.

The Strawberry AI models are already showing great promise, per the benchmarks shared by OpenAI. A study revealed that OpenAI's o1 could pass OpenAI's research engineer hiring interview for coding at a 90-100% rate, potentially raising concerns among software developers about their job security in an AI-powered world.

The Verge recently reported that the ChatGPT maker is preparing to launch its next frontier model, code-named Orion in December, earmarking ChatGPT's second anniversary. The outlet further disclosed that the next-gen AI model won't ship to broad availability via ChatGPT like previous releases. Instead, the company will prioritize the model's access to companies it works closely with, including Microsoft, which could host the model in Azure in early November.

According to The Verge, Orion is internally seen as OpenAI's GPT-4 successor. It's unclear if OpenAI will ship Orion as GPT-5, following an earlier report claiming that the company could be moving away from the traditional naming of its models. However, Sam Altman indicated that GPT-4's successor would be smarter and function like a "virtual brain."

It was all a hoax?

OpenAI logo on phone 16x9

OpenAI logo on phone (Image credit: Getty Images| SOPA Images)

Following The Verge's report, news of the potential release of the next-gen AI model spread like wildfire. But as it now seems, we might have to take the information with a grain of salt. This is especially after OpenAI CEO Sam Altman responded to the report and branded it as "fake news out of control." However, he confirmed "plenty of great stuff coming your way."

This doesn't entirely mean that The Verge's report is wrong. It could be a matter of timing or whatever the case. As you may know, this isn't the first time we've expected OpenAI to ship a particular product or service at a specific time, but it entirely ended up being something different.

Earlier this year, in May, rumors swirling around the windmill indicated that OpenAI was gearing up to launch an AI-powered Google search competitor and GPT-5. However, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted on X that the company wasn't shipping an AI-powered engine or GPT-5 at its special event. He hinted that the event would be magical while referring to the launch of GPT-4o.

Related: OpenAI unveils "temporary prototype search tool" dubbed SearchGPT to take on Google and Bing

Interestingly, it was later established that OpenAI placed its safety team under immense pressure during the safety testing of the product, dwindling the process to under one week. At this time, several high-profile executives had departed from the AI company, with some citing safety reasons, including prioritizing shiny products over safety processes. While an OpenAI spokesman admitted that the launch was seemingly rushed, with RSVPs being sent to guests before testing the model, he categorially indicated that the company didn't cut any corners.

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Kevin Okemwa
Kevin Okemwa
Contributor

Kevin Okemwa is a seasoned tech journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya with lots of experience covering the latest trends and developments in the industry at Windows Central. With a passion for innovation and a keen eye for detail, he has written for leading publications such as OnMSFT, MakeUseOf, and Windows Report, providing insightful analysis and breaking news on everything revolving around the Microsoft ecosystem. You'll also catch him occasionally contributing at iMore about Apple and AI. While AFK and not busy following the ever-emerging trends in tech, you can find him exploring the world or listening to music.