Microsoft makes ChatGPT's most-advanced $200 a month AI free

OpenAI released its o1 model in December last year, and while OpenAI touted the model as the company's most advanced AI model yet, it does come with a hefty price tag if users want full access.

OpenAI is currently selling access to its o1 reasoning model under its ChatGPT Pro subscription, which comes in at $200 a month. Selecting this option grants the user unlimited access to the latest AI model, which differentiates itself from other AI models by its "reasoning" factor.

The o1 AI model is designed to be more thoughtful of the question a user is asking and implements a step-by-step chain-of-thought process, which makes it excel in specific tasks and categories of questioning. GPT-4 is a more general-purpose model for text generation, answering simple questions, or holding conversations.

Microsoft's chief of Microsoft AI, Mustafa Suleyman, announced via social channels the o1 model will be available to Copilot users "everywhere at no cost". More specifically, Copilot users can access this new functionality by simply selecting the "Think Deeper" toggle option in either the Copilot app or the Copilot webpage. To select "Think Deeper" users will need to be signed into their Microsoft account.

It's only a matter of time before "Think Deeper" is replaced by yet another more advanced AI model, and it currently remains unclear whether Microsoft will paywall a specific level of sophistication. However, with Microsoft having an approximately $10 billion investment in OpenAI, whatever new and advanced AI model OpenAI conjures up will be immediately handed over to Redmond for its Copilot AI. But when will the freebies stop, and the hands begin reaching for our pockets? Only time will tell.

Also, for those users who can't see the "Think Deeper" option, here's what Copilot informed me to do.

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