ChatGPT’s new reasoning o1-mini AI model, previously codenamed ‘Project Strawberry’ arrived last week and it’s already rolling out to free users.

o1-mini and o1-preview are new AI models with impressive reasoning ability that can quickly solve riddles, answer equations, and even show you the thought process behind their decisions. If you want to see what o1-mini and o1-preview are capable of, check out Eric Hal Schwartz's test which showed the AI model was incredible at solving even the hardest riddles.

At launch, OpenAI had promised free users would get to test out the reasoning model in the future, too. And that time has already come, with free users gaining access to o1-mini without subscribing to ChatGPT Plus.

There is a caveat, however, as neither myself nor my colleague has access to o1-mini for free just yet, so it looks like you’ll need to be one of the lucky ones to use ‘Project Strawberry’ for free right now. OpenAI hasn’t confirmed how it’s determining which free accounts to give access to but we expect it’s a slow rollout that should grant everyone access in due course.

o1-mini for free

Currently, o1-mini is a standalone AI model that you need to select before asking a complex question. To check if you’ve got access for free, simply log in to ChatGPT on your desktop and click ‘ChatGPT Auto’. If you’re lucky enough to have free access to o1-mini, you’ll be able to select the AI model from the dropdown menu.

I’ve been testing o1-mini over the last few days using my ChatGPT Plus subscription and I’m seriously impressed with the AI model’s ability to solve the most complex of riddles. Internally, o1-mini has been used to solve puzzles like New York Times Connections and Wordle, a pretty impressive feat for artificial intelligence.

There’s no further info on the free version of o1-mini, such as how many prompts you can ask it per day, but just having access in general is a major step forward in improving ChatGPT for the masses, without signing up for a monthly fee.

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