OpenAI's o3-Mini Is a Leaner AI Model that Keeps Pace with DeepSeek

OpenAI is making a smaller, more efficient version of its cleverest artificial intelligence model available for free as it seeks to answer the hype and enthusiasm swirling around a new open-source offering from Chinese AI startup DeepSeek.

WIRED previously reported that OpenAI was prepping the new model, called o3-mini, for release on January 31. The company’s researchers have been working overtime to get it ready for prime time, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

o3-mini, which OpenAI teased in December, is a smaller version of the model that features the most advanced AI reasoning capabilities of any OpenAI offering to date. The model can break difficult problems into constituent parts in order to figure out how best to solve them.

“This powerful and fast model advances the boundaries of what small models can achieve,” the company said in ...