With GPT-5, OpenAI aims to solve its messy naming problem—and usher in an era of what Sam Altman calls ‘software on demand.’

BY BEN SHERRY, STAFF REPORTER @BENLUCASSHERRY

Photo: OpenAI

OpenAI has officially revealed GPT-5, its much-anticipated new flagship AI model.

GPT-5 represents a major step forward for the AI industry, offering state-of-the-art performance across math, science, and coding. But for OpenAI co-founder and CEO Sam Altman, the most exciting thing about it may be how it eases one of his most public frustrations with his company.

By Altman’s own admission, OpenAI has long had a naming problem. It’s not difficult to see what he means; over the years, OpenAI has released a string of increasingly powerful, and increasingly confusing, AI models. Those include GPT-4, GPT-4.5, GPT-4o, o3, o4-mini, and o4-mini-high. For the 700 million weekly users of ChatGPT, understanding which model to use for what is far from straightforward.

That’s where GPT-5 comes in. Along with representing a significant technological leap, GPT-5 also marks the unification of OpenAI’s GPT series of AI models and its o series of reasoning models, which deploy........

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