OpenAI makes a move ahead of schedule

February 1, 2025

OpenAI makes a move ahead of schedule: Instead of waiting until spring, OpenAI just dropped its newest AI models, o3-mini and o3-mini-high, which have o1-level reasoning with 4o-level speed. Translation? They’re fast, smart, cheap and built to crush DeepSeek (paywall link). Try them now in ChatGPT under the dropdown Model Menu. I’m using it, and it’s another major jump forward in AI.

Tags: models, speeds

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84.5%

Of ChatGPT’s mobile users are guys. With 353 million downloads, there’s a serious gender gap in AI. Women are way more skeptical (not me); about 53% won’t let their kids touch AI, compared to 26% of men. Remember, artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

400 million

Downloads of LibreOffice since 2011. Wowsie! Last year alone, over 35 million folks downloaded the open-source Microsoft Office competitor. I love free, too!

8 million

Views on a fake tweet about Elon Musk. It claims an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hotline got shut down because 90% of calls were about him. Musk is an immigrant from South Africa who became a U.S. citizen. Don’t share if it pops up on your feed.

$100,000

To build a single Apollo spacesuit. They were made by bra company Playtex, whose engineers know all about stretchy fabric. The result? Some 21 layers of fabric and clever “bellows” joints that let Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin bend their arms and legs. That’s stellar support.

67%

Eighth-graders reading at a basic level. That’s the lowest since federal testing began in 1992. Fourth-graders are doing even worse, at 60% (paywall link). They were kindergarteners when the pandemic hit in 2020 … not a coincidence.

844 mph

Speed Boom’s Supersonic XB-1 jet reached in tests. It’s the first civilian aircraft to break the sound barrier, aka Mach 1.1. The company has raised $700 million to build a plane that’ll carry 64 passengers at 1,300 mph (Mach 1.7) by 2030. At that speed, you could fly from LA to NYC in about two hours.

17

Solution the French-governed AI chatbot gave to 5(3+2). (The answer is 25.) The bot, Lucie, also said, “Cow’s eggs, also known as chicken’s eggs, are edible eggs produced by cows.” The bot is offline now. So, to recap, we need to worry about China in the AI race and definitely not France. Noted.

11% higher

Salary for pretty people. Researchers followed 43,000 MBA grads, and the ones seen as conventionally attractive make more than their homely peers. The disparity was largest in management and consulting and smallest in technical fields, like IT and engineering. I’m still deciding if I should be offended …

$300,000

Paid over six months to TikTokkers willing to jump ship and go Instagram-exclusive. Meta’s contracts, which were sent to certain influencers with 1 million followers or more, are broken down into tiers (paywall link). The top one pays $50,000 a month to post 10 Reels between 15 seconds and 3 minutes in length. I’d take that hourly rate.

$3.69

The cost to produce and distribute a single penny. According to the U.S. Mint, the price jumped 20% during the 2024 fiscal year. Isn’t that crazy? Speaking of … How does a penny look under a microscope? Magnificent. (I heard you groan!)