OpenAI has released its long-awaited GPT-5 AI model, making it free to use for anybody as of today.
The Sam Altman-led company calls it “our smartest, fastest, and most useful model yet,” making it “more useful responses across math, science, finance, law, and more.”
“GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like you’re talking to an expert in any topic,” Altman said during a press briefing today, likening it to Apple’s iPhone switching to high-density Retina displays, whose individual pixels could no longer be made out by the naked eye.
Altman didn’t hold back, asserting that it’s the “best model in the world at coding” and “writing,” as well as “health care, and a long list of things beyond that.”
GPT-5 is a “reasoning” model, which means that it takes an iterative approach to problem solving before coming up with its final output.
The company is putting its money where its mouth is. “With GPT-5, we’re deprecating all of our old models,” said OpenAI researcher Tina Kim during the event, using a term the company uses when it’s shutting down an obsolete model.
The company also claims that GPT-5 addresses some major pain points with the tech, including hallucinations, which continue to haunt pretty much all currently available AI models to this day, as well as cybersecurity.
But how all of this will shake out during real-world use remains to be seen. While OpenAI claims GPT-5 will make it easier than ever before to link one’s Google account, Wired‘s recent reporting on glaring cybersecurity gaps plaguing ChatGPT should make any user think twice about using the company’s Connectors feature.
The company also claims that GPT-5 is more robust to hijacking attempts — but we’ll wait until hackers have had enough time with the tool to draw any conclusions.
OpenAI is aiming to enhance customizability by offering four preset personalities, including “cynic,” “robot,” “listener,” and “nerd.”
In spite of all the braggadocio, Altman admitted that OpenAI was still a very long way from fulfilling its core goal of achieving “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) — a poorly defined term that roughly denotes the point at which an AI’s capabilities surpass those of a human — that would benefit all of humanity.
“I kind of hate the term AGI, because everyone at this point uses it to mean a slightly different thing, but [GPT-5] is a significant step forward towards models that are really capable,” Altman said today. “We’re still missing something quite important.”
It also remains to be seen whether OpenAI has meaningfully addressed the issue of users suffering delusions in the form of “ChatGPT psychosis” with its latest model. Prior to today’s announcement, the company released an update this week, announcing that it will be including lackluster “gentle reminders during long sessions to encourage breaks.”
In short, GPT-5 appears to be yet another incremental step forward as the AI industry attempts to justify the tens of billions of dollars being poured into infrastructure buildouts to power incredibly environmentally damaging AI models.
The company already rushed out two “state-of-the-art open-weight language models,” dubbed “gpt-oss-120b and gpt-oss-20b,” earlier this week, though they’re certain to now be overshadowed by GPT-5.
One thing’s for sure: the former nonprofit is red hot right now. On Wednesday, news emerged that the company is deep into talks about a potential secondary stock sale that would value it at roughly half a trillion dollars.
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