OpenAI Launches o3-Mini Amid Rising Competition from DeepSeek

OpenAI has officially launched o3-mini, a free AI model, following increased rivalry with DeepSeek R1 that has recently shaken the AI and tech world by becoming the top downloaded app in the Apple App Store and dethroning ChatGPT.

The advanced AI model's smaller, more efficient version is now free. This bold OpenAI move is a response to the enormous success of DeepSeek’s R1, DeepSeek’s latest open-source AI model.

What is the OpenAI o3-mini?

It’s the most cost-efficient and newest model in the tech company’s reasoning series. 

Starting January 31, 2025, the tool will be available in the API and ChatGPT.

The o3-mini, previewed in December last year, is OpenAI’s powerful and fast AI model that pushes the boundaries of what mini or small models can do- offering excellent STEM capabilities. 

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*Screenshots from OpenAI

O3 Mini’s strengths are in science, math, and coding. It is the first small reasoning model to support features such as function calls, structured output, and developer messages. This new mini model also supports streaming like predecessors OpenAI o1-mini and OpenAI o1-preview.

OpenAI o3-mini is accessible by ChatGPT Plus, Team, and Pro users, while Enterprise users will have access in February. On the other hand, free plan users can select “Reason” in the message composer to try o3 Mini, marking the first time free users can access a reasoning model. 

As OpenAI and DeepSeek continue their AI arms race, the most recent developments highlight the changing environment of artificial intelligence. 

With emerging rivals demonstrating that cutting-edge models can be constructed faster and more cheaply, the next chapter in AI innovation promises to be both heated and unpredictable.

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