I n a quiet move that caught many by surprise, OpenAI recently announced an update to its ChatGPT platform. Through its official account on X (formerly known as Twitter), OpenAI revealed: “There’s a new GPT-4o model out in ChatGPT since last week. Hope you all are enjoying it and check it out if you haven’t! We think you’ll like it 😊.”
Despite the brief and understated announcement, sources within OpenAI have confirmed that this latest iteration of GPT-4o incorporates significant improvements based on user feedback. The company’s subsequent update on its release notes blog elaborates: “We’ve introduced an update to GPT-4o that reflects preferences derived from experimental results and qualitative feedback from ChatGPT users. While it is not a revolutionary new model, the specifics of the enhancements are still a work in progress. Our ongoing research aims to better communicate these improvements in model behavior.”
Contrary to early speculations, this update does not introduce a new reasoning process. An OpenAI spokesperson clarified that the appearance of more detailed explanations and step-by-step reasoning is likely influenced by user prompts rather than a fundamental change in the model's architecture.
Users have noted a distinct change in performance, with the GPT-4o model displaying a notable enhancement in image generation capabilities. Previously, ChatGPT relied on OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 model for creating images based on text inputs. The GPT-4o model, unveiled in May, was designed to handle both text and images natively, offering higher-quality image generation with improved efficiency and comprehension of user prompts.
However, reactions to the update have been mixed. Some users express frustration at the lack of detailed information about the changes and question whether the improvements are substantive or merely incremental. The update’s perceived superficiality has led to criticism from various quarters.
Further inquiries reveal that OpenAI maintains two versions of GPT-4o: one optimized for ChatGPT and another for the API. According to an OpenAI representative, “We continuously refine our models for different applications. The ChatGPT variant may differ from the API version to optimize for developer needs.” The official OpenAI Developers account on X has clarified that the model is available in the API under the designation chatgpt-4o-latest, with gpt-4o-2024-08-06 recommended for most API use cases.
OpenAI’s Michelle Pokrass elaborated: “The chatgpt-4o-latest is tailored for chat applications, whereas the gpt-4o-2024-08-06 is geared towards API functionalities such as function calling and instruction following.”
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