Despite how powerful GPT-4o is, I don’t tend to use it often. If I’m looking for a powerful language model for complex reasoning tasks, I’m picking up Claude 3.5 Sonnet 9/10 times. This is because of its marginally better performance with slightly better pricing.

But after today, this may no longer be the case.

Today, OpenAI released GPT-4o mini. Unlike the rest of the GPT-4 family, OpenAI made GPT-4o-mini to compete with smaller models like Claude Haiku. In their article, they claim that its one of the best language models for its size, and that its more than 60% cheaper.

And after playing with it for a couple hours, I wholeheartedly agree.

To see if GPT-4 mini is truly better than its predecessor, I’m going to run two relatively complex reasoning tasks.

The first task will be to generate syntactically-valid SQL queries. These SQL queries will be executed against the database, and we will examine if the results look correct.

The second task will be to generate syntactically-valid JSON objects. The JSON objects will be used downstream and we’ll be able to determine if the model generated it appropriately.

In my side-by-side comparison with GPT-3.5 Turbo, I ran two complex reasoning tasks using my AI-powered algorithmic trading platform, NexusTrade. The results were astonishing:

✅ SQL Queries:

• GPT-3.5 Turbo: Failed to generate a valid query, throwing errors consistently.
• GPT-3.5 Turbo: Delivered accurate results on the first try, showcasing its superior reasoning capabilities.

✅ JSON objects:

• GPT-3.5 Turbo: Ran out of context and failed to generate a valid object.
• GPT-4o mini: Successfully generated a valid portfolio and even passed a backtest configuration!

The standout feature? GPT-4o mini not only outperformed GPT-3.5 Turbo in both tasks but also comes at over 60% lower cost with a massive 128K context window. This makes it a powerhouse for complex tasks, leaving GPT-3.5 Turbo in the dust.

With this advancement, OpenAI is raising the bar, and I believe it will spark fierce competition from other players like Anthropic and Meta. The future of AI is looking brighter and more affordable for all companies leveraging these technologies. 

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