(Reuters) - OpenAI will not release "o3" as a standalone artificial intelligence model, as the ChatGPT maker looks to simplify its products, CEO Sam Altman said on Wednesday.

The Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed startup will release a GPT-5 model as a comprehensive AI system that will incorporate o3 along with other technologies, he said in a post on X.

OpenAI had unveiled o3 and o3 mini models in December 2024.

Its announcement comes at a time when companies in the U.S. are facing greater investor scrutiny over their massive spending on the technology, after Chinese startup DeepSeek unveiled a low-cost AI model last month.

"We want to do... a much better job simplifying our product offerings. We want AI to 'just work' for you; we realize how complicated our model and product offerings have gotten," Altman said, without sharing any timeline for the release of these products.

OpenAI did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The generative AI pioneer aims to merge the o-series and GPT-series models in a bid to create AI systems that can utilize all available tools and handle variety of tasks.

OpenAI will also release a GPT-4.5 model, internally referred to as "Orion", as its last "non-chain-of-thought" model - a reasoning process which generates direct answers without clear intermediate steps.

The model often struggles with complex reasoning tasks, particularly in domains such as physics and mathematics.