Name appears in description of an editing feature
The name of an unannounced model, "GPT Image 2.6," appeared in the documentation for OpenAI's image generation API on Oct. 28 (Oct. 29 Japan time). @aitrackerbot, an X account that tracks information on new models, reported it.
The name appeared in the description of a new editing feature called "markup." Users draw marks such as circles and arrows on a transparent image the same size as the original and overlay it to show the AI where and how to make changes. The description says the feature supports GPT Image 2.5 and 2.6. It cannot be combined in the same request with the existing method of specifying the area to change by painting over it.
As of Oct. 29, 2.6 was not listed in OpenAI's model list or changelog. Version 2.5, released in September, comes in two versions: "Sunburst," which prioritizes editing accuracy, and "Flare," which prioritizes speed.
Animated GIF output too
On Nov. 3, @aitrackerbot reported that a change allowing the image tool to be asked for animated GIFs had been added to the public code of OpenAI's programming AI "Codex." It strings together 2 to 16 frames, with a default of 9 frames at 0.2 seconds each. It supports both creating new images and editing, but the feature remains disabled and is not in the API documentation.
In OpenAI's image generation, three unannounced names under "aurora" also briefly appeared in the API on Oct. 18, prompting speculation that they were next-generation models.
