If you think GPT-4o is something, wait until you see GPT-5 – a ‘significant leap forward’

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sketched out a tantalizing idea of what people might expect from the eagerly anticipated GPT-5 artificial intelligence model. He attempted to balance optimism and caution in his comments, but his vision of the new model's potential underlined his confidence that GPT-5 will represent a substantial improvement over its predecessor, GPT-4, and won't face unresolvable issues.

“I expect it to be a significant leap forward,” Altman said. “A lot of the things that GPT-4 gets wrong, you know, can't do much in the way of reasoning, sometimes just sort of totally goes off the rails and makes a dumb mistake, like even a six-year-old would never make.” 

Altman likened the current state of AI technology to the early days of the iPhone, suggesting that while today's models are useful, they are still in the nascent stages of their potential. He pointed out that current AI models, including GPT-5, are relatively small compared to what future advancements might bring.

Interestingly, Altman's recent comments about model size indicate a slight shift from his previous stance. For those who follow Altman's comments closely, that's a sharp turn from when he suggested that the era of giant models might be nearing its end last year. Instead, he now apparently thinks models will likely continue to grow, driven by significant investments in computing power and energy.

Altman is confident that GPT-5 will address many of the shortcomings of GPT-4, particularly in areas such as reasoning and error prevention. But, Altman also emphasized that while the development of GPT-5 is promising, there is still considerable work to be done. “We don't know yet. We are optimistic, but we still have a lot of work to do on it.”

The big picture for large language models

Altman did take on some of the biggest controversies around AI, particularly content licensing. He took the opportunity to brag about OpenAI's approach, which involves agreements with publishers to license news content for ChatGPT in exchange for training data for the models. He contrasted this approach with that of companies like Google, which claims that AI-driven traffic benefits publishers – a claim he and many others view with skepticism.

Altman also during the interview tempered expectations of what AI means for the internet and the broader economy. He simultaneously suggested there won't be a massive impact on internet use while also pushing for brand-new approaches to commerce. 

 “I think maybe AI is going to not super significantly but somewhat significantly change the way people use the internet,” Altman said. “And if so, you can see some of the economic models of the past needing to evolve, and I think that's a broader conversation than just training data.”

Altman suggested that GPT-5 is just the beginning of a series of advancements aimed at building more sophisticated and capable AI systems. The next few months will be critical in determining whether GPT-5 can deliver on its promise of a significant leap forward, addressing the limitations of its predecessors and paving the way for more advanced AI applications.

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ChatGPT’s big, free update with GPT-4o is rolling out now – here’s how to get it

ChatGPT has just got one its biggest updates so far, thanks to a series of new features – powered by a new GPT-4o model – that were announced at its 'Spring Update' event. And with comparisons to the virtual assistant in Spike Jonze's movie Her flying around, you're probably wondering when you can try it out – well, the answer is a little complicated.

The good news is that GPT-4o, a new multi-modal version of ChatGPT that can “reason across audio, vision, and text in real time” (as the company describes it), is rolling out right now to everyone, including free users. We've already got it in our ChatGPT Plus account, albeit only in limited form – for now, OpenAI has only released GPT-4o's text and image powers, with the cool voice and video-based features coming sometime later.

To find it, just log into your account in a web browser and check the drop-down menu in the top left-hand corner – if you have the update, it should default to GPT-4o with a label calling it OpenAI's “newest and most advanced model” (see below).

A laptop on a red and blue background showing ChatGPT running the GPT-4o model

The GPT-4o model is rolling out now to the browser-based version of ChatGPT – if you’ve got it, it’ll appear in the model drop-down in the top-left corner (above). (Image credit: Future / OpenAI)

That's web access to the GPT-4o model sorted, but what about the ChatGPT apps for iOS, Android and now Mac? It seems that ChatGPT's newest model rolling out a little slower on those. We don't yet have access to GPT-4o on iOS or Android yet, and ChatGPT's new Mac app is still rolling out (and wasn't available at the time of writing).

OpenAI said on May 13 that it was “rolling out the macOS app to Plus users starting today” and that it would be made “more broadly available in the coming weeks”. Strangely, Windows fans have been snubbed and left out of the ChatGPT desktop app party, but OpenAI says “we also plan to launch a Windows version later this year”.

When do we get the new voice assistant?

The most impressive parts of OpenAI's GPT-4o demo were undoubtedly the real-time conversational speech and the vision-based tricks that allow the model to 'see' and chat simultaneously.

Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to wait a little longer for those to get a wider rollout. OpenAI says that developers can “now access GPT-4o in the API as a text and vision model”, which differs from the image-based capabilities of the version that was released to free and paid users starting yesterday.

And as for the voice tricks, OpenAI says it'll “roll out a new version of Voice Mode with GPT-4o in alpha within ChatGPT Plus in the coming weeks”. And that “we plan to launch support for GPT-4o's new audio and video capabilities to a small group of trusted partners in the API in the coming weeks”. 

That's a little vague and means some of GPT-4o's coolest tricks are only coming to testers and developers among ChatGPT's paid users for now. But that's also understandable – the tech powering OpenAI's GPT-4o demos likely required some serious compute power, so a wider rollout could take time.

That's a little frustrating for those of us who have been itching to chat to the impossibly cheerful and smart assistant powered by GPT-4o in OpenAI's various demos. If you haven't watched them yet, we'd suggest checking out the various GPT-4o demo videos on OpenAI's site – which include two AI assistants singing to each other and ChatGPT helping someone prep for an interview.

But on the plus side, GPT-4o is surprisingly going to be available for both free and paid users – and while the full rollout of all the tricks that OpenAI previewed could take some time, the promise is certainly there. Now it's time to see how Google responds at Google I/O 2024 – here's how you can tune into the live event.

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OpenAI’s GPT-4o ChatGPT assistant is more life-like than ever, complete with witty quips

So no, OpenAI didn’t roll out a search engine competitor to take on Google at its May 13, 2024 Spring Update event. Instead, OpenAI unveiled GPT-4 Omni (or GPT-4o for short) with human-like conversational capabilities, and it's seriously impressive. 

Beyond making this version of ChatGPT faster and free to more folks, GPT-4o expands how you can interact with it, including having natural conversations via the mobile or desktop app. Considering it's arriving on iPhone, Android, and desktop apps, it might pave the way to be the assistant we've all always wanted (or feared). 

OpenAI's ChatGPT-4o is more emotional and human-like

OpenAI demoing GPT-4o on an iPhone during the Spring Update event.

OpenAI demoing GPT-4o on an iPhone during the Spring Update event. (Image credit: OpenAI)

GPT-4o has taken a significant step towards understanding human communication in that you can converse in something approaching a natural manner. It comes complete with all the messiness of real-world tendencies like interrupting, understanding tone, and even realizing it's made a mistake.

During the first live demo, the presenter asked for feedback on his breathing technique. He breathed heavily into his phone, and ChatGPT responded with the witty quip, “You’re not a vacuum cleaner.” It advised on a slower technique, demonstrating its ability to understand and respond to human nuances.

So yes, ChatGPT has a sense of humor but also changes the tone of responses, complete with different inflections while conveying a “thought”. Like human conversations, you can cut the assistant off and correct it, making it react or stop speaking. You can even ask it to speak in a certain tone, style, or robotic voice. Furthermore, it can even provide translations.

In a live demonstration suggested by a user on X (formerly Twitter), two presenters on stage, one speaking English and one speaking Italian, had a conversation with Chat GPT-4o handling translation. It could quickly deliver the translation from Italian to English and then seamlessly translate the English response back to Italian.

It’s not just voice understanding with GPT-4o, though; it can also understand visuals like a written-out linear equation and then guide you through how to solve it, as well as look at a live selfie and provide a description. That could be what you're wearing or your emotions. 

In this demo, GPT said the presenter looked happy and cheerful. It’s not without quirks, though. At one point ChatGPT said it saw the image of the equation before it was even written out, referring back to a previous visual of just a wooden tabletop.

Throughout the demo, ChatGPT worked quickly and didn't really struggle to understand the problem or ask about it. GPT-4o is also more natural than typing in a query, as you can speak naturally to your phone and get a desired response – not one that tells you to Google it.  

A little like “Samantha” in “Her”

If you’re thinking about Her or another futuristic-dystopian film with an AI, you’re not the only one. Speaking with ChatGPT in such a natural way is essentially the Her moment for OpenAI. Considering it will be rolling out to the mobile app and as a desktop app for free, many people may soon have their own Her moments.

The impressive demos across speech and visuals feel may only be scratching the surface of what's possible. Overall performance and how well GPT-4o performs day-to-day in various environments remains to be seen, and once available, TechRadar will be putting it through the test. Still, after this peek, it's clear that GPT-4o is preparing to take on the best Google and Apple have to offer in their eagerly-anticipated AI reveals.

The outlook on GPT-4o

However, announcing this the day before Google I/O kicks off and just a few weeks after we’ve seen new AI gadgets hit the scene – like the Rabbit R1 – OpenAI is giving us a taste of truly useful AI experiences we want. If this rumored partnership with Apple comes to fruition, Siri could be supercharged, and Google will almost certainly show off its latest AI tricks at I/O on May 14, 2024. But will they be enough?

We wish OpenAI showed off a bit more live demos with the latest ChatGPT-4o in what turned out to be a jam-packed, less-than-30-minute keynote. Luckily, it will be rolling out to users in the coming week, and you won’t have to pay to try it out.

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