I don't think it is comparable to alpha zero, because in the latter case there is an easily verifiable endpoint: whether it won the match or not. With o1 they s

I don't think it is comparable to alpha zero, because in the latter case there is an easily verifiable endpoint: whether it won the match or not. With o1 they still rely on human-curated "correct" answers; the system is not able to decide by itself what a correct answer is like alpha zero does. Thus, while it leads to improved reasoning vs prior art, it is not yet bootstrapping. It may be useful in constrained fields like coming up with proofs of theorems, though.