OpenAI's "12 Days of Shipmas" campaign kicked off on Dec. 5, marking a festive season of innovation with daily announcements showcasing the company's latest AI advancements. This ambitious event is a celebration of technology, timed just before the second anniversary of ChatGPT's groundbreaking launch in 2022.
Each day of the festive period features a livestream where OpenAI introduces a new offering or demo. This includes major releases as well as smaller updates, referred to by CEO Sam Altman as "big ones and some stocking stuffers," according to MIT Technology Review.
Here's a roundup of the exciting developments so far:
Day 1: A new era of AI reasoning
The event began with the release of OpenAI's improved o1 reasoning model, now officially out of preview. This enhanced version of o1 -- dubbed a game-changer by Altman -- is available exclusively through the new $200/month ChatGPT Pro subscription. Subscribers can enjoy unlimited access to GPT-4o, Advanced Voice Mode, and an optimized o1 model tailored for complex problem-solving.
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Day 2: Reinforcement fine-tuning arrives
On Dec. 6, OpenAI unveiled an alpha program for reinforcement fine-tuning. This tool empowers developers to train models on specific tasks using example problems and answers. Altman emphasized the potential for creating expert domain-specific models with minimal training data, paving the way for more personalized AI applications. After the announcement, Altman took to X to say that this will make it "really easy to create expert models in specific domains with very little training data."
On Dec. 9, the campaign showcased ChatGPT's integration with Apple Intelligence on iOS and macOS. Demonstrations highlighted Siri generating ChatGPT-driven responses and a new document analysis feature for macOS. On the iPhone 16, the enhanced camera button unlocks ChatGPT's vision feature, bridging AI's conversational and analytical capabilities.
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Day 4: Canvas goes mainstream
ChatGPT's "Canvas" view, previously in preview, became widely available on Dec. 10 for the fourth day of Shipmas. This feature simplifies managing complex content, allowing users to edit and execute Python code seamlessly. Canvas integration extends to custom GPTs, offering a versatile workspace for developers and writers alike.
Day 5: Sora's grand debut
The most recent of the Shipmas release on Dec. 12, featured OpenAI's highly anticipated text-to-video AI generator, Sora, officially launching. Accessible via Sora Turbo for ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers, this tool enables users to create, animate, and remix videos with ease. While initial availability was limited due to overwhelming demand, Sora promises to redefine video content creation. The $200 Pro plan enhances the experience with higher resolution, longer durations, and watermark-free downloads.
The Shipmas campaign highlights OpenAI's commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI. As new announcements continue through Dec. 18, anticipation grows for what's next.