OpenAI’s latest model will change the economics of software

When OpenAI announced a new generative artificial-intelligence (AI) model, called o3, a few days before Christmas, it aroused both excitement and scepticism. Excitement from those who expected its reasoning capabilities to be a big step towards superhuman intelligence (some reckoned it would be a bigger deal than OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT in 2022). Scepticism because OpenAI did not release it to the public and had every incentive to overplay the firm’s pioneering role in AI to curry favour with Donald Trump, the incoming president.