Expect your ChatGPT experience to get faster and smarter today.
OpenAI updated its flagship line of large language models Thursday, unveiling the GPT-5 generative AI model after months of anticipation. While the developer has released a lot of model updates in recent months, including new open-weights models just this week, it’s been more than two years since the debut of GPT-4. With a new generation worthy of a new number, how big of a change should you expect?
«I tried going back to GPT-4 and it was quite miserable,» OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told reporters. «This is significantly better in obvious ways and subtle ways.»
Like its predecessor, GPT-5 powers the chatbots, agents and search tools you’re used to using in ChatGPT or through other apps that use OpenAI’s technology. But the company said this version is much smarter, more accurate and faster. Demonstrations showed it quickly creating custom applications with no coding required, and developers said they’ve worked on ways to make sure it provides safer answers to potentially treacherous questions. (Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s parent company, in April filed a lawsuit against OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in training and operating its AI systems.)
The new model should be available for everyone on Thursday, including those who use ChatGPT’s free tier. Here’s what to expect.
One model for everybody (kinda)
Unlike some of OpenAI’s incremental releases, GPT-5 will be rolled out for all users, from those using it for free through ChatGPT to those who work at companies that pay for big enterprise plans. There are, naturally, some differences between how it looks based on whether and how you pay for it. Here’s a breakdown:
- Free users: You’ll get access to GPT-5 up to a usage cap, after which you’ll have a lighter GPT-5-mini model.
- Plus users: Similar to free users, but with higher usage limits.
- Pro users: Unlimited access to GPT-5 and access to a more powerful GPT-5 Pro model.
- Enterprise/EDU/Team users: GPT-5 will be the default model, although it may be next week before it’s rolled out for everyone.
GPT-5 itself is really a couple of different models. There’s a fast but fairly straightforward LLM and a more robust reasoning model for handling more complex questions. A routing program identifies which model can best handle the prompt.
Even faster coding skills
OpenAI particularly highlighted the skills and speed at which the new model can write code. This isn’t just a function for programmers. The model’s ability to write a program makes it easier for it to solve a problem you present to it by creating the right tool.
Yann Dubois, a post-training lead at OpenAI, showed off the model’s coding ability by asking it to create an app for learning French. Within minutes, it had coded a web application complete with sound and working game functions. Dubois actually asked it to create two different apps, running the same prompt through the model twice. The speed at which GPT-5 writes code allows you to try multiple times and pick the result you like best — or provide feedback to make changes until you get it right.
«The beauty is that you can iterate super quickly with GPT-5 to make the changes that you want,» Dubois said. «GPT-5 really opens a whole new world of vibe coding.»
Read more: Never Use ChatGPT for These 11 Things
New safety features
After announcing some steps this week to improve how its tools handle sensitive mental health issues, OpenAI said GPT-5 has some tweaks of its own to make things safer.
The new model has improved training to avoid deceptive or inaccurate information, which will also improve the user experience, said Alex Beutel, safety research lead.
It’ll also respond differently if you ask a prompt that could be dangerous. Previous models would refuse to answer a potentially harmful question, but GPT-5 will instead try to provide the best safe answer, Beutel said. This can help when a question is innocent (like a science student asking a chemistry question) but sounds more sinister (like someone trying to make a weapon). «The model tries to give as helpful of an answer as possible but within the constraints of feeling safe,» Beutel said.
Voices and colors
If you prefer to chat with your bots vocally rather than typing, OpenAI said you should expect improvements in voice capabilities. The Advanced Voice mode will now be available to all users, whether free or paid, and usage limits will be higher.
You can also change the color of your chats, with some options exclusive to paid users. Other customization options include the ability to tweak personalities. You’ll be able to set ChatGPT to be thoughtful and supportive, sarcastic or more. The options — Cynic, Robot, Listener and Nerd — are opt-in, and you can change them anytime.
Let ChatGPT read your mail
ChatGPT will now be able to connect with your Google Calendar and Gmail accounts, meaning you can ask the chatbot about your schedule and it will suggest things. You won’t have to — and you may not want to, depending on how you feel about sharing your private info — but you can enable them so it automatically pulls info from them you don’t need to share before asking it something.
These connectors will start for Pro users next week, with other tiers gaining access thereafter.
But is this really the way to AGI?
Altman told reporters the model is a «significant step along the path to AGI,» or artificial general intelligence, a term that often refers to models that are as smart and capable as a human. But Altman also said it’s definitely not there yet. One big reason is that it’s still not learning continuously while it’s deployed.
OpenAI’s stated goal is to try to develop AGI (although Altman said he’s not a big fan of the term), and it’s got competition. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been recruiting top AI scientists with the goal of creating «superintelligence.»
Whether large language models are the way there, nobody knows right now. Three-quarters of AI experts surveyed earlier this year said they had doubts LLMs would scale up to create something of that level of intelligence.
