OpenAI is constantly working on new models with several teams exploring different approaches to achieving the long-term goal of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and some of those ideas are working out better than others.
According to Reuters, there is a new project code-named "Strawberry" that some on X predict could be a new version of the infamous "reasoning mode" Q* revealed through a leak last year.
Project Strawberry seems to be a new model or system capable of improved reasoning, including going online to find information in preparation for solving a particularly complex problem.
What isn’t clear is whether Strawberry is the model OpenAI CTO Mira Murati was talking about when she mentioned the next generation AI would be as intelligent as someone with a PhD, or whether this is proof OpenAI has hit ‘level 2’ on its path to AGI — the reasoners.
What do we know about Project Strawberry?
The Reuters report, based on internal documentation and comments from an insider suggests this could be a significant upgrade in artificial intelligence capabilities.
According to the contact, Strawberry is even a "tightly kept secret" inside OpenAI but it seems, that while it might be part of ChatGPT in the future its main purpose is to perform "deep research" beyond simple user queries.
Some of the capabilities include being able to plan enough when responding to navigate the internet autonomously and reliably without having to be told to do so by the user.
ChatGPT can already search the web for specific details but not reliably and often to get it to look for live data and not just look at its training data, you have to specifically tell it to do so.
OpenAI hasn't addressed the reports on Strawberry directly but told Reuters it is common practice to carry out continuous research into a range of new AI capabilities.
When will we see Project Strawberry in ChatGPT?
Project Strawberry is just that, a research project for OpenAI and as such it isn’t clear if it will ever see the light of day. However, even if it isn’t a product in its own right the research will likely feed in to future AI models trained by OpenAI or future product updates.
I suspect any improvements in reasoning will be factored into training for GPT-5 and Project Strawberry could be like Omni, a new style model that comes out of nowhere to change the game. Unlike GPT-4, GPT-4o (Omni) was natively multimodal in and out.
Strawberry could be a new type of model that is a native reasoner from the ground up without requiring fine-tuning or additional training. Very little is actually known but OpenAI did suggest in a comment to Reuters that AI understanding like humans was an important requirement.
