Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stirred up speculation this week with a social media post featuring a photo of strawberries growing in planters. The caption, “I love summer in the garden,” sent the AI community into a frenzy of interpretation, with many believing it to be a veiled reference to a rumoured new AI planning algorithm codenamed ‘Strawberry’.
In July, Reuters reported on a secret OpenAI project called ‘Strawberry’, aimed at enhancing AI reasoning and enabling autonomous internet navigation. The timing of Altman’s post, amidst growing competition in the AI space, has only fuelled the fire of speculation.
Adding to the intrigue is a mysterious X account, “I rule the world MO“, which has been posting cryptic messages seemingly related to OpenAI’s developments. The account’s posting patterns are unusually frequent and responsive, leading some to speculate whether it might be an AI-powered account testing advanced language models. When this account posted “Welcome to level 2. How do you feel?”, Altman himself responded within hours with “Amazing to be honest,” further stoking curiosity.
The LMSYS chatbot arena once again featured in the mystery as an anonymous new model called “sus column R”, demonstrated impressive reasoning abilities and sparked speculation about its origins and whether it might be related to OpenAI’s rumoured ‘Strawberry’ project.
The peculiarity of the situation isn’t lost on industry observers. Ethan Mollick, a professor at the Wharton School, noted, “OpenAI is the only company whose corporate communication strategy consists of obscure hints, Delphic pronouncements and riddles that could fit into adventure games.” This approach, while unorthodox, has proven effective in generating buzz and maintaining OpenAI’s mystique in the fast-paced world of AI development. The hype has even led to some extreme displays of enthusiasm, with one member of the AI community reportedly getting a strawberry tattoo in anticipation of the rumoured new model.
In a strange twist of fate, amidst all this speculation about advanced AI capabilities, it has come to light that most leading AI models struggle with a seemingly simple task: correctly counting the number of “r” letters in the word “strawberry”. This quirky limitation serves as a reminder that even as we speculate about ground breaking AI advancements, current models still struggle with some basic tasks.
Takeaways: Despite the social media frenzy, it’s worth noting that as of yet, nothing concrete has materialised from this flurry of activity. While OpenAI’s teasers have certainly captured attention, the company might need to hurry up and ship actual products. Competitors like Meta, Google, and Anthropic are making significant strides in AI development, with some arguably ahead of OpenAI on several fronts. The AI race is heating up, and cryptic hints can only sustain interest for so long without tangible results.