OpenAI Launches o3-mini, its Cheapest But Most Dangerous AI Model to Date

In a week during which one young AI firm from China has disrupted the entire AI landscape, OpenAI could not remain muted. As Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei articulated concrete insights regarding DeepSeek’s specifics and development expenses, the leading and most renowned AI startup is now doing the same.

New Model Features

The o3-mini AI model aims to solve science, mathematics, and coding tasks at a cost-effective level. It has replaced the former o1-mini and is now available to ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro customers. For the first time, free users can test OpenAI o3-mini by clicking “Reason” in the Message Composer or regenerating a response.

Pricing Strategy
OpenAI has dramatically reduced pricing compared to its previously strongest AI models:

Key Features of o3-mini

• Function Calling, Structured Outputs, Developer Messages support
• Three reasoning levels (low, medium, high)
• 24% faster response times (7.7 vs. 10.16 seconds)
• Immediate access for ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users
• Enterprise access after one week
• First-time availability for free users
• Increased rate limit: 150 instead of 50 messages per day
• Performance equivalent to o1 at medium reasoning level
• 39% fewer severe errors
• “Deliberative alignment” for safer responses
• Outperforms GPT-4o in safety and jailbreak tests

Safety Concerns

The main disadvantage of OpenAI o3-mini is its higher risk level compared to earlier models. The safety risk has been set to “Medium” in three of four areas: persuasion, autonomy, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear substances (CBRN substances).

This is important since, by their own criteria, OpenAI is already operating at the edge of its capabilities. Additionally, only models with a post-mitigation rating of “high” or lower can be further developed, and only models with a post-mitigation score of “medium” or below can be deployed. OpenAI may soon reach a limit on its ability to create and publish new AI models.

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