OpenAI introduced on Thursday OpenAI o1, a new series of large language models the company says are designed for solving difficult problems and working though complex tasks.

The models were trained to take longer to perform tasks than other AI models, thinking through problems in ways a human might. They can "refine their thinking process, try different strategies, and recognize their mistakes, OpenAI says in a press release. The models perform similarly to PhD students when working on physics, chemistry, and biology problems.

The o1 models scored 83% on a qualifying exam for the International Mathematics Olympiad, OpenAI says, while its earlier GPT-4o model correctly solved only 13% of problems.

OpenAI provided some specific use case examples. The o1 models could be used by healthcare researchers to annotate cell sequencing data, by physicists to generate complicated mathematical formulas needed for quantum optics, and by developers to build and execute multi-step workflows. They also perform well in math and coding.