OpenAI has gone fairly quiet once again, with its much-hyped voice chat features rolling out far more slowly than anyone had anticipated.  But there have been murmurings about new projects in the works, including SearchGPT, which combines generative AI and web browsing and the more mysterious “Project Strawberry.” Strawberry’s origins extend back to November 2023, when a model (more so a training technique) named Q* surfaced in leaks from Reuters. It was even speculated that Q* was potentially dangerous and played some role in CEO Sam Altman’s hiring and firing last year.  Q* was thought to combine an advanced reasoning model with an AI agent capable of exploring the internet. Despite dramatic headlines, ‘OpenAI is sitting on an apocalyptically powerful model,’ its legitimacy was very much contested at the time.  More details of the Q* project emerged in May and June this year, which saw it renamed to Project Strawberry…