Update: An OpenAI spokesperson provided more information to us after our initial report. You can read the latest details here.

According to The Verge, OpenAI is getting ready to launch its upcoming AI model, known as Orion internally, by December of this year. This time around, the plan is to roll out the model gradually to trusted partners before making it available more widely through ChatGPT.

A spokesperson from OpenAI has refuted the report, stating that it is not accurate, but did not offer any additional details. The Verge mentions that Microsoft engineers are expecting early access to Orion as soon as November, though the official name for the model is still up in the air. Previous models from OpenAI were given codenames like “strawberry” before their official release.

The release of OpenAI’s next frontier model holds significant importance. The AI startup recently secured $6.6 billion in funding at a valuation of $157 billion, and investors are looking for OpenAI to continue pushing out increasingly advanced models to stay ahead in the tech industry.