OpenAI Delays GPT-5, Confirms o3 Release

After pulling the plug on the consumer launch of its o3 reasoning model back in February, OpenAI is now gearing up to drop both o3 and its next-gen counterpart, o4-mini, in just "a couple of weeks." This news came straight from the horse's mouth, with OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman spilling the beans on X last Friday.

Altman let slip that this change of heart is all tied up with OpenAI's upcoming biggie, GPT-5. They've been pretty hush-hush about it, but word on the street is that GPT-5 is gonna be a one-stop shop, rolling reasoning capabilities into the mix.

"We're gonna make GPT-5 way better than we first thought," Altman scribbled in his post. "But, man, it's been tougher than we expected to get everything to play nice together. And we gotta make sure we've got the juice to handle what we think is gonna be a crazy amount of demand."

He also dropped a hint that we might see GPT-5 hit the scene "in a few months" — a bit later than what they'd hoped for at first.

From what OpenAI's let slip about GPT-5, they're planning to let everyone chat with it at the "standard intelligence setting," but don't go overboard, 'cause there are limits to stop any abuse. If you're a ChatGPT Plus member, you'll get to crank it up a notch to a "higher level of intelligence," and if you're on the ChatGPT Pro plan, you'll be able to push it to an "even higher level of intelligence."

Back in the early days of the year, Altman was all about how GPT-5 would be the Swiss Army knife of AI, packing in voice, Canvas, search, deep research, and more. "We're aiming to bring all our models together," he said, "so they can use all our tools, know when to take their time, and be super handy for a bunch of different jobs."

OpenAI's feeling the heat from rivals like the Chinese AI lab DeepSeek, who are playing it fast and loose with an "open" approach to launching their models. Unlike OpenAI's more guarded strategy, these "open" folks are letting the AI community tinker with and even make a buck off their models.

Alongside o3, o3 pro, o4-mini, and GPT-5, OpenAI's also planning to roll out its first open language model since GPT-2 in the coming months. Altman mentioned earlier this week that this new kid on the block will have reasoning chops and will go through some extra safety checks before hitting the streets.