Sam Altman says OpenAI deserves to be mocked for its confusing AI names — and a 'fix' is coming
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- Sam Altman acknowledged that OpenAI's naming conventions could be less confusing.
- The OpenAI CEO said the way it names AI models would see an overhaul "by this summer."
- He's previously said ChatGPT was a "horrible" name and had become too ubiquitous to change.
GPT-4o. o1 mini. GPT-4.1.
Confused about the names of the various AI models powering ChatGPT? You're not alone.
Even CEO Sam Altman says the AI giant deserves to be mocked over the branding choices. You can also expect an overhaul to the AI model names — perhaps as soon as this summer.
"How about we fix our model naming by this summer and everyone gets a few more months to make fun of us (which we very much deserve) until then?" Altman wrote on X this week.
Altman's post comes on the heels of OpenAI's latest family of AI models, GPT-4.1, GPT-4.1 mini, and GPT-4.1 nano, which the company says demonstrate "major gains" in coding. For now, the new models are only available through OpenAI's API, or the software interface that allows third-party apps and services to plug into OpenAI's models.
OpenAI's model names have been the subjects of much confusion, with a series of numbered, nonspecific names like GPT-4o, GPT-4o mini, o1-pro, o3-mini, and so on, making it relatively difficult for users that are unfamiliar with the minutiae of the tech to distinguish between models without actively trying them out or reading up on their differences.
Altman isn't the only member of OpenAI to acknowledge that model names might benefit from some reworking — his chief product officer, Kevin Weil, expressed his own distaste for the company's naming practices on a recent episode of Lenny's Podcast.
"It's absolutely atrocious and we know it, and we will get around to fixing it at some point, but it's not the most important thing, and so we don't spend a lot of time on it," Weil said.
"We name things like o3 mini high," he added, laughing.
Don't expect the name ChatGPT to go anywhere, however — Altman previously told Trevor Noah that while he thought "ChatGPT" was a terrible name, it may be too "ubiquitous" to change.
"No marketer ever would've picked ChatGPT as the name for this, but we may be stuck with it," Altman said. "And that might be alright."