OpenAI launches GPT-5 amid skyrocketing valuation

OpenAI released its latest model, GPT-5, yesterday, and while it doesn’t introduce many new features, it does bring Her even closer to reality.

Smarter, faster, and more humanlike: If using GPT-4 is like “talking to a college student,” then GPT-5 is like having “a Ph.D.-level expert” on everything, Sam Altman said at yesterday’s launch event. In OpenAI’s demonstrations:

• GPT-5 excelled in “vibe coding.” In about a minute, it turned natural language prompts into polished-looking programs, including a game for learning French, which rang alarm bells over at Duolingo.
• Its written responses shed some of the hallmark robot tones that have made ChatGPT-generated essays so identifiable. It also sounded eerily normal in voice mode.
• When asked to put on its assistant hat, the new model generated a more comprehensive daily schedule because it can now access your Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Contacts (with permission).

Users of ChatGPT’s free tier get capped access to GPT-5, while paying subscribers get more or unlimited usage.

OpenAI is trying to prove its worth. Early GPT-5 reviews aren’t raves, but they’re still positive, which could grease the wheels for a major payday: Altman’s company is looking to sell billions of dollars’ worth of employee stock in a deal that would value the AI darling at $500 billion—a 67% increase from its March valuation, Bloomberg reported this week.