Sam Altman unveils GPT-5: Free for all, promises AGI path
OpenAI has officially unveiled GPT-5, its most advanced language model to date, initiating a rollout to all users, including those on the free tier. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman presented the new model, touting it as a “major upgrade over GPT-4o and a pretty significant step along our path towards AGI,” or Artificial General Intelligence. Altman highlighted the transformative potential, stating, “This era where one person can do more than any person, or every person, in history is incredibly exciting.”
Among GPT-5’s most compelling capabilities, Altman emphasized its ability to “write you good, instantaneous software,” suggesting that the concept of “software on demand” will be a defining feature. He likened the experience of using GPT-5 to having “a team of PhD level experts ready to go and help you with whatever your goals are,” underscoring the model’s depth of expertise.
In a notable strategic shift, OpenAI is making GPT-5 accessible to all users, including those without a premium subscription. While free users will exclusively interact with GPT-5, paid subscribers will retain access to earlier models as well. Nick Turley, head of ChatGPT, explained this move, asserting that “All ChatGPT users are going to have access to the smartest, fastest and most useful model that we’ve ever launched.” He highlighted the new model’s significantly improved accuracy and a reduced tendency to generate incorrect or nonsensical information, often referred to as a lower hallucination rate. Turley believes that for many free users, GPT-5 will serve as their “first introduction to reasoning” in an AI system. Furthermore, the user experience will be streamlined, eliminating the need to select a specific model. “People will not have to think about the model’s reasoning. In fact, you just use GPT-5, and it will think what it needs to think, and it will respond instantly when it needs to respond instantly,” Turley added, predicting a “magical” user experience. Olivier Godement, Head of Platform, corroborated these improvements, noting that with enhanced “thinking and reasoning,” GPT-5 is “significantly less likely to hallucinate” and is both “more upfront” and “more reliable.”
Altman also addressed OpenAI’s significant focus on India, which he described as the company’s second-largest market, expressing optimism that it “could well become our largest market in the world.” He commended the remarkable ways Indian citizens are integrating AI into their lives and businesses, even forming new companies based on the technology. OpenAI is actively working with local partners to tailor products for India, aiming to make AI both highly effective and more affordable across the country, given the rapid growth observed in the region.
The company has invested considerable effort in enhancing GPT-5’s performance across diverse cultural contexts, languages, and a wide array of tasks. Altman characterized this as potentially “the biggest single step forward we have ever taken in our mission of very broad global accessibility of a true frontier model.” Despite its advanced capabilities and increased speed, the team has successfully driven down operational costs, making it possible to offer “a model at this level of capability at this cost” that is “far beyond the frontier of any other system out in the world.”
While acknowledging that GPT-5 has not yet reached the level of Artificial General Intelligence, Altman emphasized its current impact. He pointed out that five years ago, the idea of a system capable of answering almost any question, performing various tasks, and writing software at PhD levels of expertise would have been deemed “absolutely impossible.” The profound impact this technology is already having on education, healthcare, productivity, economic growth, and scientific discovery is, he concluded, “quite special.” Regarding the ongoing global discussions on AI regulation, Altman recognized that different countries would pursue varied approaches but noted a consistent consensus among leaders worldwide: the desire to ensure AI thrives within their nations, bringing economic growth and societal benefits.