GPT-5 Is the Ultimate Overhyped Revolution You Can’t Trust
Hello everyone. Gather around, because OpenAI just dropped GPT‑5 on the table like an over-caffeinated gamer slamming down a freshly minted legendary loot drop, and the tech press is already losing their collective minds. CEO Sam Altman is calling it “the best model in the world” for coding and writing- something he’s apparently decided is as revolutionary as the first iPhone Retina display. Which is ironic, because much like the iPhone, the marketing is doing heavy lifting while the actual leap forward remains up for debate.
The Sales Pitch: From High School Student to PhD Genius
Altman’s analogy is charming. GPT-3 was your half-asleep high school lab partner who occasionally set the Bunsen burner on fire. GPT‑4? A college student-smarter, but still prone to telling you absurd lies about Napoleon’s pet dragons. GPT‑5, says Altman, is now a “PhD-level expert.” Which sounds amazing, until you remember that plenty of PhDs are experts at exactly one niche topic and still can’t reliably change a car tire. So let’s not pretend a boost in benchmark scores automatically means we’ve unlocked digital Einstein.
One Model to Rule Them All (Unless You’re Cheap)
So the big “innovation” here? No more confusing dropdown for picking your model. Now GPT‑5 silently switches to its “reasoning” version when it gets something complex, as long as you say magic words like “think hard.” Behind the scenes, a “router” decides what you get. For free users, though, there’s a catch-you’ll hit a mystery quota and suddenly get thrown into the bargain bin version: GPT‑5 “mini.” Think of it like playing Elden Ring and suddenly getting warped into a quest with no weapons. Great fun.
Custom Personalities: Because Why Not?
They’re also giving you personality presets: Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd. Finally, a way to make your chatbot sound like the internet comment section, HAL 9000, your therapist, or that guy in Discord who corrects you about Star Wars canon. For extra sparkle, you can now color-code your conversations-just in case aesthetics were the bottleneck in AI adoption.
Coding on Demand, or the Illusion Thereof
Altman is hyping “software on demand.” In demos, GPT‑5 spat out hundreds of lines of code to build an interactive French-learning site, and it worked on the first try. Impressive! But let’s tap the brakes. If you’ve ever worked with generative models, you know the first 80% comes easy. It’s the last 20%-debugging, edge cases, making sure your French quiz doesn’t break when someone types “Ouiiiiiii”-that turns the dream into tech support purgatory.
Safety Theater
OpenAI brags it spent over 5,000 hours testing GPT‑5 for safety, with a focus on “making sure the model doesn’t lie to users.” Spoiler: it still does. Apparently, its new trick is “safe completions”-giving you partial, vaguely condescending answers to dangerous questions. It’s the AI equivalent of your doctor saying, “Well, I can tell you that your cough is impressive, but I’m not going to speculate why,” and then walking out of the exam room.
The Transparency Black Hole
And in keeping with tradition, OpenAI isn’t telling you what data they trained it on, because… reasons. Which is great for fostering “trust.” Nothing says “we care about you” quite like deploying a globally influential algorithm whose origins are a Schrödinger’s cat of ethics and data rights violations.
AGI or Just Brag-I?
Altman says GPT‑5 is a “clear step” toward Artificial General Intelligence, though he “hates the term” because it’s overused. Which is rich, because if the AI industry is a boss fight, “AGI” is the glowing weak spot everyone keeps aiming for while pretending it’s not about to phase shift into “superintelligence” territory. But don’t worry-GPT‑5 still can’t learn on the fly, meaning Skynet won’t be updating its firmware mid-invasion. Yet.
Final Prescription
As your friendly neighborhood digital doctor, my diagnosis is this: GPT‑5 is indeed a better, shinier model, but it’s still bound by the same chronic conditions all large language models suffer-occasional hallucinations, opaque origins, and a marketing department that’s allergic to underselling. It’s not magic, but it is another strong step forward in the industrial arms race of AI. If you’re expecting it to be your flawless personal coder/therapist/teacher, prepare to be treated for disappointment.
Verdict: Good progress, but not the revolution it desperately wants you to believe.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: GPT-5 is being released to all ChatGPT users, https://www.theverge.com/openai/748017/gpt-5-chatgpt-openai-release
