Comment by cdirkx
16 hours ago
I understand the confusion, but isn't this kind of similar to asking does the iPhone 14 Max beat the iPhone 16 Mini? At least with phones there are hard specs we can use to compare, but in a lot of cases the answer will be "it depends"
At least there is a simple system - the words 'Mini' and 'Max' are intended to refer to the size of the item (that one is miniature, and the other is their maximum size).
If they were called iPhone 14 Luna and iPhone 16 Sol then this is less clear.
Or on the flipside, if the models were called GPT 6.1 Mini and GPT 6.1 Max, nobody would be arguing about the names being hard to grok. The words 'mini' or 'small' are more descriptive than 'Luna' or 'Terra'.
The problem with that is then you would have GPT 6.1 Max with max thinking which is different from GPT 6.1 Small with max thinking.
If you look back the naming problem started around the point that OpenAI started doing reasoning models (o1, 4o) where they had to describe this fork in model behavior that let a smaller model think longer and be smarter.
You can come up with naming schemes that don't clash, but there's something to be said for this approach where the thinking level is like you describe and the model name requires you to learn that Astra is the largest model.
I guess it never really occurred to me that people wouldn't immediately grok:
* Luna (Moon)
* Terra (Earth)
* Sol (Sun)
* Astra (Galaxy/Universe)
The relative sizing seems dead simple.
> dead simple.
1. Even more dead simple if it just used Moon instead of Luna, Sun instead of Sol, etc. - one less quick translation in the head.
2. Or even more dead simple if it just used "Small", "Large", etc. - removing another quick translation in the head. (On the other hand, all these suggestions are English - maybe Luna, etc. is more understandable for non-English speakers?)
You're misunderstanding the misunderstanding.
You're right! The relative sizing of models is dead simple. This doesn't help when there are improvements between release numbers, and models are released one at a time instead of as a family.
When Sol 6.4 comes out and the latest Astra is still 6.1, which do you use?
3 replies →
> does the iPhone 14 Max beat the iPhone 16 Mini?
Sure, in a hypothetical world where the latest Max phone is two generations older than the latest Mini phone. In which case now you have to evaluate not only screen size but ALSO specs and component age and software support etc. How badly do you need the bigger screen? Etc
If you are comparing the iPhone 16 Max to the iPhone 16 Mini, everything is a lot easier.
> iPhone 16 Mini
I wish
Yeah, but shouldn't then all 4 tiers be released at once? So we get 6.1 for all Luna/Terra/Sol/Astra?
It's more like if Apple called the iPhone 16 the "iPhone 14 16 edition"
I’d rock an iPhone 1942 Edition.
Don’t forget to refill the kerosene tank!
I mean yes, phone manufacturers have the same problem.
No. It’s not similar at all.