OpenAI Developing ‘Garlic’ Model to Counter Google’s Recent Gains

OpenAI, which in recent weeks has appeared to fall behind Google in AI development, is fighting back with a new large language model codenamed Garlic.

Last week, OpenAI’s chief research officer Mark Chen told some colleagues about the new model, which was performing well on the company’s evaluations, at least when compared to Gemini 3 and Anthropic’s Opus 4.5 in tasks involving coding and reasoning, according to a person with knowledge of the remarks.

The news comes as OpenAI grapples with the success Google has enjoyed with its new Gemini 3 model. As Erin and I first reported Monday night, CEO Sam Altman has initiated a “code red” to make improvements in ChatGPT. As a first step, OpenAI has a new reasoning model it is preparing to launch that is “ahead” of Gemini 3 in OpenAI’s internal evaluations, Altman told colleagues Monday. 

But Garlic may be a bigger deal. Chen said OpenAI is looking to release a version of Garlic as soon as possible, which we think means people shouldn’t be surprised to see GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.5 release by early next year.