OpenAI introduces a smaller version of its most advanced model to date.

• On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled its latest AI model, "GPT-4o mini," which is designed to enhance the capabilities of its popular chatbot.
• The new release, touted as the "most capable and cost-efficient small model," will later incorporate image, video, and audio features.

On Thursday, OpenAI unveiled its latest AI model, "GPT-4o mini," which is designed to enhance the capabilities of its popular chatbot.

The new release, touted as the "most capable and cost-efficient small model," will later incorporate image, video, and audio features.

GPT-4o, the latest and most powerful model from OpenAI, is an offshoot of the mini AI model. Launched in May during a livestreamed event with executives, GPT-4o has enhanced audio, video, and text capabilities, with the ability to handle 50 different languages at improved speed and quality.

Microsoft-backed OpenAI has been valued at over $80 billion by investors, and the company, founded in 2015, is under pressure to maintain its position in the generative AI market while also finding ways to generate revenue as it invests heavily in processors and infrastructure to develop and train its models.

The AI model unveiled on Thursday is part of OpenAI's efforts to lead in "multimodality," which involves generating various forms of AI-generated media, such as text, images, audio, and video, all within a single tool: ChatGPT.

OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap stated on CNBC that the world is multimodal, and humans process and engage with the world through various modalities such as seeing, hearing, and speaking. As a result, text and code have always felt incomplete as the only interfaces to the models' capabilities and potential.

Starting Thursday, GPT-4o mini will be accessible to free users of ChatGPT, in addition to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers. It will be available to ChatGPT Enterprise users next week, the company announced.