OpenAI has announced a new AI model, esoterically dubbed o1, that it describes as even more capable than anything that has come before – and even more dangerous. But before you start worrying about the machine apocalypse, it is worth thinking about what purpose such warnings serve.

While previous models such as GPT-4 were considered “low” risk for public release, according to OpenAI’s in-house framework, its new o1 model is the first to qualify as “medium” risk on half the criteria. OpenAI bases…