OpenAI, the team behind the widely used ChatGPT, has kicked off its 12 days of 12 livestreams event, promising a mix of exciting announcements – big and small (their words, not mine). And the first one has just dropped.
OpenAI has rolled out a new ChatGPT Pro plan, priced at $200 per month, offering expanded access to its top-tier models and tools. This subscription includes unlimited use of OpenAI’s most advanced model, OpenAI o1, along with o1-mini, GPT-4o, and Advanced Voice (the one that caused a bit of a stir earlier).
The plan also comes with o1 Pro mode, a more powerful version of o1 that utilizes extra computing power to tackle tougher challenges and deliver even more accurate answers. Looking ahead, OpenAI plans to add more high-performance, compute-heavy productivity features to this plan.
When stacked up against both o1 and o1-preview, o1 Pro mode outperforms on tough machine learning benchmarks, particularly in math, science, and coding. This smarter version of the model takes more time to process, which, according to the company, ensures the most reliable answers. OpenAI says that, based on evaluations from external experts, o1 Pro mode consistently delivers more accurate and thorough responses, especially in fields like data science, programming, and case law analysis.Of course, all of this comes with a hefty $200 monthly price tag, as mentioned earlier, so it’s not really something for the average user. Plus, by 2029, OpenAI reportedly plans to charge $44 per month for ChatGPT Plus, but don’t worry – the free version might still be available, though probably without access to the top-tier models, which honestly might not be such a bad thing.With AI evolving so quickly, I don’t think it’s the worst idea to limit access to the best models. A high price tag could help with that. While AI has huge potential to benefit researchers, scientists, and some industries in general, it can also be misused – just look at all the deepfake incidents. Sure, those who want to exploit it for harm could pay for access, but at least not everyone would be able to get their hands on it.On a positive note, OpenAI is awarding 10 grants of ChatGPT Pro to medical researchers at top institutions in the US and plans to expand these grants to other regions and fields in the future. Honestly, I think that’s exactly where AI should be put to use for free – helping people who can make a real difference.