Sam Altman Sparks Speculation About New OpenAI Foundation Model 'Strawberry'

Despite recent executive changes at OpenAI, co-founder and CEO Sam Altman appears unfazed. He shared a cheerful image on his personal X account today, featuring strawberries flourishing in planters, captioned, “i love summer in the garden.”

While the post might seem innocuous, it has sparked excitement among Altman's followers and the wider AI community on X. Many speculate it could hint at the long-rumored development of a new foundation model called “Strawberry,” potentially linked to the anticipated GPT-5.

“What other clues do we need?” asked @kimmonismus, a prominent AI rumor account on X, igniting further discussion.

Bindu Reddy, CEO of open-source AI startup Abacus AI, also chimed in, interpreting it as a reference to Project Strawberry.

Compounding the speculation, an "anonymous-chatbot" AI model has emerged in the open-source lmsys arena, known for being a testing ground for new AI releases. This chatbot claims to be part of OpenAI’s GPT-4 family and mirrors the format of the “gpt2-chatbot” that preceded GPT-4o’s release in May 2024. Early users report that this new chatbot demonstrates enhanced reasoning capabilities compared to GPT-4o and other leading models, suggesting it could be significantly more powerful.

The rumors of a groundbreaking OpenAI model began with a Reuters report in November 2023 detailing an AI model named “Q” (pronounced “Q-Star”). According to insiders, some at OpenAI view Q as a potential breakthrough in their quest for artificial general intelligence (AGI)—defined as systems surpassing human capabilities in economically valuable tasks.

Further developments followed in July, when Reuters reported that OpenAI is exploring a novel approach to its AI models under the codename “Strawberry,” based on internal documentation. This project aims to enable AI to not only generate responses but also autonomously navigate the internet for "deep research."

It's worth noting that it has been nearly 17 months since OpenAI released GPT-4, its last major foundation model. Although they issued GPT-4o and GPT-4o mini during this period—both complex models—the competitive landscape with Anthropic, Google, and Meta has intensified, as these companies release equally powerful or even superior models in specific tasks.

We have reached out to OpenAI for clarification on Altman’s post and will provide updates as they become available.