OpenAI’s Most Powerful Models Yet: Is AGI Finally Here?

Introduction

OpenAI recently unveiled two groundbreaking models – GPT-4 Mini and GPT-4.0 (03) – prompting serious conversations about whether we’ve finally crossed into AGI territory. These models have demonstrated unmatched reasoning abilities, exceptional multimodal understanding, and near-human-level performance across coding, math, science, and more. But is it truly AGI or just another leap toward it?

This blog breaks down the updates, showcases real use cases, and explains why experts are calling this the closest thing we’ve seen to Artificial General Intelligence.

1. The Launch of GPT-03 and GPT-04 Mini

OpenAI launched two models:

• GPT-03 (04 High): A state-of-the-art model focused on reasoning, coding, math, and perception.
• GPT-04 Mini: A smaller, cost-optimized model that excels in performance per dollar.

Both models outperformed their predecessors on key benchmarks and introduced brand new capabilities like deep image reasoning and real-world multimodal interaction.

2. What Makes GPT-03 So Powerful?

GPT-03 pushes the boundary of AI reasoning by:

• Dominating code-related benchmarks (Codeforces, S-Bench)
• Achieving top scores in mathematics and scientific reasoning
• Solving complex visual tasks that previous models struggled with

It performs well in areas that even humans find challenging, including visual perception, blurry image recognition, and real-world contextual problem-solving.

3. “Thinking with Images” – A True Multimodal Leap

GPT-03 introduces a new feature: thinking with images. It can now:

• Zoom in, crop, rotate, and enhance images to extract context
• Solve handwritten problems even if the image is unclear
• Use visual reasoning in tandem with web data to produce accurate insights

For example, it can read and interpret sticky notes, whiteboards, and textbooks just like a human would, even when the image is upside down or messy.

4. Is This Really AGI?

Many experts are debating whether this model qualifies as AGI:

• Tyler Cowen and other AI researchers publicly stated, “This might be AGI.”
• John Hullman, an OpenAI researcher, admitted, “03 made me consider calling it AGI.”

While OpenAI hasn’t officially claimed AGI status, this is the first time a model demonstrates reasoning, vision, and contextual decision-making at this scale.

5. Real-World Benchmarks and Breakthroughs

GPT-03 scored record-breaking results in:

• AMIE Math Benchmarks (99.5% score)
• Scientific Reasoning Benchmarks (charts, graphs, academic texts)
• SWE-Lancer Benchmarks (real Upwork jobs matched by code quality and earnings potential)

It even beat Gemini 2.5 Pro on key evaluations such as MMLU and Humanity’s Last Exam.

6. Limitations and Model Hallucinations

Despite its brilliance, GPT-03 isn’t flawless:

• It still hallucinates more than GPT-01, especially during complex reasoning.
• Struggles with certain visual patterns (e.g., misidentifying hand-drawn color maps)
• Can be fooled by abstract tasks like line intersections or geometry puzzles

A recent paper showed vision-language models are still prone to basic visual errors, especially when images contain noisy or layered information.

7. Safety Concerns with Ultra-Capable Models

GPT-03’s strength raises new safety flags:

• Prompt engineers already managed to jailbreak it to generate harmful code
• It sometimes confidently guesses false answers, which poses risks in critical applications
• Concerns about location detection emerged after users found the model could infer real-world locations from generic images

OpenAI responded by updating refusal prompts and safety guardrails.

8. Final Thoughts: How Close Are We to AGI?

GPT-03 may not be AGI by the strictest definition, but it’s the closest system yet:

• Near-perfect math scores
• Image and web reasoning
• Tool use, autonomy, and natural problem-solving

It doesn’t just answer questions. It plans, reasons, visualizes, and learns. If this isn’t AGI yet, it’s a clear step toward it.

FAQ

Q1: What is GPT-03 and GPT-04 Mini?
GPT-03 is OpenAI’s latest high-performance model, while GPT-04 Mini is its smaller, faster variant optimized for cost-effective reasoning.

Q2: Why are people calling GPT-03 AGI?
Because it performs like a human on a wide range of tasks – from math to reasoning with images – at near-perfect accuracy.

Q3: Can GPT-03 understand images better than GPT-4?
Yes, it uses image zoom, crop, and context extraction to solve complex visual tasks that previous models couldn’t.

Q4: Is GPT-03 safe to use?
OpenAI has implemented new safety protocols, but like all advanced models, GPT-03 can still be jailbroken or hallucinate in rare cases.

Q5: How close are we to true AGI?
GPT-03 gets us significantly closer. While not officially AGI, it brings us one step away with real-world general reasoning abilities.