Need smarter insights in your inbox? Join our weekly newsletters to get solely what issues to enterprise AI, knowledge, and safety leaders. Subscribe Now
OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman is publicly acknowledging main hiccups in yesterday’s rollout of GPT-5, the corporate’s new, flagship giant language mannequin (LLM) — marketed as its strongest and succesful but.
Answering person questions in a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Something) thread and in a publish on X this afternoon, Altman admitted to a variety of points which have disrupted the launch of GPT-5, together with defective mannequin switching, poor efficiency, and person confusion — prompting OpenAI to partially stroll again a few of its platform adjustments and reinstate person entry to earlier fashions like GPT-4o.
“It was just a little extra bumpy than we hoped for,” Altman wrote in reply to a query on Reddit concerning the massive GPT-5 launch.
As for inaccurate mannequin efficiency charts proven off throughout OpenAI’s GPT-5 livestream, Altman stated: “Folks have been working late and have been very drained, and human error bought in the way in which. Quite a bit comes collectively for a livestream within the final hours.”
AI Scaling Hits Its Limits
Energy caps, rising token prices, and inference delays are reshaping enterprise AI. Be part of our unique salon to find how high groups are:
Turning power right into a strategic benefit
Architecting environment friendly inference for actual throughput positive aspects
Unlocking aggressive ROI with sustainable AI programs
Safe your spot to remain forward: https://bit.ly/4mwGngO
Whereas he famous the accompanying weblog publish and system card have been correct, the missteps additional muddied a launch already going through scrutiny from early customers and builders.
GPT-5 rollout updates:
*We’re going to double GPT-5 price limits for ChatGPT Plus customers as we end rollout.
*We’ll let Plus customers select to proceed to make use of 4o. We’ll watch utilization as we take into consideration how lengthy to supply legacy fashions for.
*GPT-5 will appear smarter beginning…
– Sam Altman (@sama) August 8, 2025
Issues with new computerized mannequin router
One key motive for the difficulty in keeping with Altman stems from OpenAI’s new computerized “router” that assigns person prompts to certainly one of 4 GPT-5 variants — common, mini, nano, and professional — with an elective “considering” mode for heavier reasoning duties.
On XAltman revealed {that a} key a part of that system — the autoswitcher — was “out of fee for a piece of the day,” inflicting GPT-5 to seem “manner dumber” than meant.
In response, OpenAI says it’s implementing adjustments to the mannequin choice boundary and can make it extra clear which mannequin is responding to a given question.
A UI replace can also be on the way in which to assist customers manually set off considering mode.
Moreover, Altman confirmed that OpenAI will now permit ChatGPT Plus customers to proceed utilizing GPT-4o — the prior default mannequin — after a wave of complaints about GPT-5’s inconsistent efficiency. He stated on Reddit the corporate is “making an attempt to collect extra knowledge on the tradeoffs” earlier than deciding how lengthy to supply legacy fashions.
But many customers together with OpenAI beta testers like Wharton Faculty of Enterprise professor Ethan Mollick expressed confused and dismay at OpenAI unilaterally upgrading their ChatGPT experiences to GPT-5 and initially taking away entry to the older fashions.
Actual-world efficiency lags behind hype
OpenAI’s inner benchmarks could present GPT-5 main the pack of LLMs, however real-world customers are sharing a unique expertise.
For the reason that launch, customers have posted quite a few examples of GPT-5 making primary errors in math, logic, and coding duties.
Information scientist Colin Fraser posted screenshots of GPT-5 incorrectly fixing whether or not 8.888 repeating equals 9 (it doesn’t, clearly)whereas one other person confirmed it flubbing a easy algebra downside: 5.9 = x + 5.11.
And nonetheless different customers reported bother getting correct solutions to math phrase issues or utilizing GPT-5 to debug its personal presentation charts.
Developer suggestions hasn’t been significantly better, with customers posting photos of GPT faring worse at “one-shot” sure programming duties — finishing them effectively with a single-prompt — in comparison with rival AI lab Anthropic’s new mannequin Claude Opus 4.1.
And safety agency SPLX discovered GPT-5 nonetheless suffers from severe vulnerabilities to immediate injection and obfuscated logic assaults until its security layer is hardened.
OpenAI within the highlight
With 700 million weekly customers on ChatGPT, OpenAI stays the most important participant in generative AI by viewers.
However that scale has introduced rising pains. Altman famous in his X publish that API visitors doubled over 24 hours following the GPT-5 launch, contributing to platform instability.
In response, OpenAI says it’s going to double price limits for ChatGPT Plus customers, and proceed to tweak infrastructure because it gathers suggestions.
However the early missteps — compounded by complicated UX adjustments and errors in a high-profile launch — have opened a window for rivals to realize floor.
The strain is on for OpenAI to show that GPT-5 isn’t simply an incremental replace, however a real step ahead. Based mostly on the preliminary rollout, many customers aren’t satisfied — but.
Each day insights on enterprise use circumstances with VB Each day
If you wish to impress your boss, VB Each day has you coated. We provide the inside scoop on what firms are doing with generative AI, from regulatory shifts to sensible deployments, so you’ll be able to share insights for max ROI.
Thanks for subscribing. Try extra VB newsletters right here.
An error occured.
