The new model, details of which were revealed by OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen, has be particularly effective in encoding and reasoning tasks. According to a source familiar with the company's internal evaluations, Garlic compares very well with competing models such as Google's Gemini 3 and Anthropic's Opus 4.5.
Work on Garlic is a reaction to Google's dynamic development in the field of artificial intelligence. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced “code red”, which means increased efforts to improve ChatGPT capabilities. The company is preparing to introduce a new inference model that, according to internal tests, outperforms the Gemini 3 model.
Mark Chen emphasized that OpenAI plans to bring Garlic to market as soon as possible. The new model may debut in the form of GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.5, and is expected to be released in early 2026. If these plans come true, Garlic could become a significant step forward for OpenAI in its competition with technology giants.
