In a bold move to reclaim its position at the forefront of artificial intelligence, OpenAI is reportedly developing a new, high-performance AI model. Codenamed 'Garlic', this model is being positioned as a direct competitor to Google's dominant Gemini 3, which recently claimed the top spot on industry benchmarks.
Code Red at OpenAI Sparks Development Race
The competitive pressure from Gemini 3's success was significant enough to trigger an internal 'code red' declared by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. This signaled an urgent, all-hands-on-deck push to enhance ChatGPT's capabilities and reestablish the company's leadership in the AI arena. The development of Garlic is seen as a core part of this strategic response.
Garlic Shows Promise in Internal Testing
According to reports, OpenAI's Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, informed employees that the Garlic model has performed exceptionally well in internal evaluations. When compared against top-tier rivals like Google's Gemini 3 and Anthropic's Opus 4.5, Garlic reportedly scored very high. It demonstrated particular strength in both coding and reasoning capabilities, areas where Gemini 3 and Opus 4.5 are currently considered industry leaders, respectively.
Chen did not provide a precise launch date but emphasized the release would happen 'as soon as possible'. Given the intense competitive landscape, industry observers speculate a potential launch window in early 2026 for OpenAI to effectively counter its rivals.
Innovative Training Yields a Smaller, Smarter Model
A key breakthrough during Garlic's development involved solving problems in the pretraining phase. This is the foundational stage where AI models learn from massive datasets. OpenAI's team refined the process by teaching the model to grasp broad, general concepts first before moving on to specific tasks.
This innovative approach had a significant benefit: it allowed OpenAI to pack the same level of knowledge into a smaller model that would typically require a much larger architecture. Smaller models are advantageous for several reasons:
- They are more cost-effective for developers to use and implement.
- They offer greater usability and efficiency.
- They are also cheaper for OpenAI itself to build and operate.
It's important to note that Garlic is a separate project from another model called 'Shallotpeat', which Altman mentioned to staff in October. Both projects, however, shared the goal of overcoming early training challenges.
A Two-Horse Race for the Consumer Market
The fierce competition between OpenAI and Google is partly driven by their shared focus on the same audience: everyday end-users who utilize AI models for daily tasks and work. This contrasts with the strategy of companies like Anthropic. Its CEO, Dario Amodei, recently stated his company is not in the same 'emergency mode' as its competitors because Anthropic primarily targets business customers, not general consumers. The company's success with its Claude Code tool, which reportedly reached $1 billion in annual revenue within six months of public launch, validates this enterprise-focused approach.
Meanwhile, the work done on Garlic has already provided a foundation for OpenAI's next steps. Chen indicated that the advancements are helping the team begin development on an even more advanced model, ensuring the innovation cycle continues at a rapid pace.
