OpenAI Kicks Off 12 Days of “Ship-mas” With Big Announcements, Day 4 Covered.

ChatGPT is more popular than ever, and OpenAI is rolling out some of its most significant updates to date. OpenAI has officially launched its “12 days of ship-mas,” a festive series of daily announcements featuring new features, products, and demos.

OpenAI shipmas have kicked off with significant announcements, marking an exciting period of innovation and growth. Starting December 5th 2024.

Here’s a summary of what’s happened so far and what to expect:

‘Shipmas’ Day 4 [Dec 10th 2024]

On Day 4 of its 12 Days of OpenAI event, OpenAI announced that Canvas, its innovative writing and coding tool, is now available to all ChatGPT users. Previously exclusive to Plus and Teams subscribers, Canvas is built on GPT-4o and provides a collaborative environment where users can write, code, and receive feedback from ChatGPT.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman highlighted the update on X (formerly Twitter), noting that Canvas not only supports coding but also features creative tools like the ability to emojify writing.

You can access Canvas by selecting the new “Canvas” option within the ChatGPT interface. OpenAI describes the feature as “a new way of working with ChatGPT.”

‘Shipmas’ Day 3 [Dec 9th 2024]

OpenAI launched Sora, its text-to-video AI tool, during Day 3 of the 12 Days of Ship-mas. Sora allows users to create videos of up to 20 seconds by simply typing instructions and offers advanced features. The platform also introduced a Storyboard feature, enabling users to organize and edit sequences on a timeline, and an Explore page, where AI-generated videos created by the community are shared.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described Sora as a transformative tool, stating it will “deeply change the way we use computers.”

Sora is available to ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) and Pro ($200/month) subscribers. The tool is rolling out to users in the US and many other countries, though Altman noted it may take time to reach the UK and Europe.

‘Shipmas’ Day 2 [Dec 6th 2024]

OpenAI has unveiled another major update on the second day of its 12-day Ship-mas event: an alpha program for reinforcement fine-tuning, a tool designed to help developers train AI models for specialized tasks with minimal data.

This new tool allows developers to train AI models by providing example problems and answers, enabling the creation of highly tailored expert models. According to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, the goal is to simplify the process of fine-tuning models for specific domains, making it “really easy to create expert models in specific domains with very little training data.”

Sam Altman: ‘It’s easier than ever to train expert AI models.’
Post on X

‘Shipmas’ Day 1 [Dec 5th 2024]

The event’s first day brought the release of OpenAI’s improved o1 reasoning model, as well as the introduction of a new premium subscription tier, ChatGPT Pro, priced at $200 per month.

Release of the OpenAI o1 Reasoning Model: The new reasoning model replaces o1-preview (code-named Strawberry) with enhancements in coding, math, and image reasoning.
Faster, more concise responses. Optimized for complex tasks, particularly in logic and problem-solving.

The o1 model will be available to ChatGPT Plus and Team subscribers immediately, with Enterprise and Education users gaining access next week.

12 Days of OpenAI starts now.

Day 1: An update on OpenAI o1https://t.co/zkZUaflb94
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) December 5, 2024

Introduction of ChatGPT Pro ($200/month): Unlimited access to GPT-4o and Advanced Voice Mode. An exclusive o1 Pro Mode, designed for solving the toughest problems using more computational resources.
ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) continues to offer access to standard models and new features (except for Pro-exclusive capabilities).

Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO, described o1 Pro Mode as being able to “think even harder for the hardest problems.”

Upcoming Announcements:

Sora Text-to-Video AI Tool:

Sources suggest Sora will launch during this event, expanding OpenAI’s portfolio into generative video. This release could set new benchmarks in creative AI, directly competing with tools like Google’s Veo.

New Features and Fun Additions:

Santa-Inspired Voice Mode: A playful update spotted in the code suggests a holiday-themed voice for ChatGPT, with a snowflake icon replacing the voice mode button.

Web Browsing and File Uploads: OpenAI is working on adding these features to ChatGPT, although no timeline has been provided. These updates would significantly expand the tool’s functionality, making it even more versatile for research and professional tasks.

Generative AI is rapidly becoming a mainstream utility. The integration into platforms like Siri suggests that this is just the beginning of a deeper AI presence in everyday life.

With 10 days left in this event, OpenAI is expected to unveil more tools, features, and possibly even new models.

Stay tuned for updates as we follow each day of “ship-mas”—there’s a lot more to come from OpenAI!