After OpenAI announced GPT-4o mini in July 2024, Sam Altman agreed with criticism of the company’s model-naming scheme—but he did not announce a replacement. Futurism reported that, when tech YouTuber Concept Central called for a naming overhaul on X, Altman replied, “lol yes we do.”
What did Sam Altman say about GPT-4o mini’s name?
OpenAI announced GPT-4o mini on July 18, 2024. In a contemporaneous report published two days later, Futurism said Concept Central criticized the company’s model names on X and called for a revamp. Altman’s reported response was the brief “lol yes we do.” Futurism’s July 20, 2024 report is the source for the English wording; the original post was not independently verified here.
The reply reads as agreement that the naming scheme needed work. It is not a published plan: Altman did not specify new names, a timetable, or what an overhaul would involve. A contemporaneous report by IT之家 also described the exchange, translating the response as “Haha, yes, we really do.” IT之家’s July 22, 2024 report
Why was GPT-4o mini in the conversation?
The exchange followed the launch of a name that combines the GPT model family, the “4o” designation, and “mini.” OpenAI described GPT-4o mini as its “most cost-efficient small model” and said its API supported text and vision. The company highlighted uses such as chaining or parallel API calls, processing large context, and fast customer-support responses in its July 18, 2024 launch announcement.
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Those launch details explain the product context, but they do not establish whether users found the name confusing. OpenAI reported 82% on MMLU, launch-era API prices of $0.15 per 1 million input tokens and $0.60 per 1 million output tokens, a 128K-token context window, and up to 16K output tokens per request. These are figures from OpenAI’s 2024 announcement, not a current price quote or independent assessment. The company also said its cost per token was 99% lower than text-davinci-003; that comparison is OpenAI’s own.
What makes an AI model name useful?
Two practical tests help explain the complaint without assuming that the name has been objectively measured as confusing:
- Does the label signal what the model is for or how it differs? “Mini” suggests a smaller variant, but a reader may still need documentation to understand its capabilities and place in the product family.
- Are related names easy to distinguish at a glance or aloud? Labels such as GPT-4o and o4 are visually similar enough that readers may need to check which model a page or conversation means.
These are useful criteria for evaluating model labels, not findings from a user study. The sources covering Altman’s reply do not provide a survey, measured confusion rate, or experimental comparison of naming systems.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Did OpenAI change its naming scheme?
Altman’s one-line reply did not commit OpenAI to a change, and the cited exchange contains no proposed replacement scheme or schedule. It should not be read as an announcement that a naming overhaul was underway.
Product status is a separate question from naming. OpenAI’s release notes say GPT-4o was retired from ChatGPT on February 13, 2026, while noting there were no API changes at that time. That ChatGPT retirement does not by itself establish the availability of every API model or deployment. OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini API documentation separately lists the model and the snapshot gpt-4o-mini-2024-07-18. Check the live documentation for current API terms and availability, which can change.
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