OpenAI plans to release its next-generation frontier model, code-named Orion and rumored to actually be GPT-5, by December, according to an exclusive report from The Verge. However, OpenAI boss Sam Altman is already pushing back.
According to “sources familiar with the plan,” Orion will not initially be released to the general public, as the previous GPT-4 variants were. Instead, the company intends to hand the new model over to select businesses and partners, who will then use it as a platform to build their own products and services. This is the same strategy that Nvidia is pursuing with its NVLM 1.0 family of large language models (LLMs).
What’s more, The Verge reports that Microsoft is planning to host the new model beginning in November. There is no confirmation yet that Orion will actually be called GPT-5 when it is released, though the model is reportedly considered by its engineers to be GPT-4’s successor.
Within hours of the report’s publication on Friday, Altman coyly denied the claims, stating “fake new is out of control.” However, he did not deny outright that Orion would be released in December, nor did he cite any specific aspects of The Verge’s story as being factually inaccurate.
He has not expounded on his position since publishing that tweet, leaving us confused both about his statement’s meaning and his company’s eventual plans for Orion.
— Sam Altman (@sama) October 25, 2024
This report comes a little over a month after OpenAI’s surprise release of Project Strawberry, officially known as 01 preview and 01-mini. Its “reasoning” architecture is designed to deduce answers as a human would and accurately solve complex questions on various subjects — including science, coding, and math — faster than a person can.
However, the 01 models have not been met with the same degree of fervor that GPT-4 received, in part because the new models are limited in their functionality, incapable of uploading files or analyzing images, and as VentureBeat notes, are expensive for OpenAI to operate.
In the run-up to 01 preview’s release, Altman published a series of cryptic tweets featuring the fruit. He appears to be doing the same with Orion. In September, just as the company was reportedly finishing up training Orion using synthetic data generated by 01, Altman fired off a conspicuous tweet about visiting the Midwest. As The Verge notes, the dominant constellation in the Northern Hemisphere’s winter sky is, you guessed it, Orion.
i love being home in the midwest.
excited for the winter constellations to rise soon; they are so great.
— Sam Altman (@sama) September 14, 2024
Rumors about GPT-5 have flooded the internet for many months now, basically since the day GPT-4 launched in March 2023. Reports initially put the release date sometime in the summer of 2024, but once that passed, the goalpost had been moved to this fall. On the other hand, former Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati said in an interview this past June (before leaving teh company) that the “next-gen” model was not due out for another year and a half.
So, while a launch later this December seems plausible, timed with the two-year anniversary of ChatGPT, it’s just as likely that it won’t come until 2025 based on how inaccurate all the predictions have been so far.
Nearly a month after announcing the GPT-6.1 Sol model, OpenAI unveiled GPT-6.1 Terra today. The latest addition to the family focuses on computer use, visual reasoning, coding, and professional work, while costing 50% less through the API than GPT-5.6 Terra.
OpenAI says Terra can handle everything from filling out browser forms and working inside spreadsheets to interpreting technical drawings and editing videos. The company says it can also complete computer-based tasks more than three times faster than GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.
ASUS has started selling its UGen Intel Arc Pro B70 graphics card in Europe, bringing its take on Intel’s workstation GPU to customers with a hefty €1,799 recommended price. The card is available in Germany and Austria, while ASUS lists it at CHF 1,799 in Switzerland.
Intel first introduced the Arc Pro B70 in March 2026, with its own branded model starting at $949. ASUS’s version arrives several months later with the same core GPU architecture but a different cooling design and a higher power rating. The price also places it well above Intel’s original starting point, although the two prices are not directly comparable because ASUS’s European figure includes VAT.
Anthropic has officially filed to go public, and buried inside its S-1 is a blunt warning about the technology at the center of its business. The maker of Claude AI says advanced AI could cause everything from large-scale cyberattacks and geopolitical instability to catastrophic or even existential risks for humanity.
The warnings take up a surprisingly large part of the filing. Axios notes that more than 90 pages, or roughly a third of the prospectus, focus on risk factors. Many of them warn about what could happen as AI systems become more capable and autonomous.