Sam Altman Addresses ‘Bumpy’ GPT-5 Rollout, Bringing 4o Back, and the ‘Chart Crime’

During a Reddit ask-me-anything session on Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and key members of the GPT-5 team faced a multitude of questions about their new model, with users requesting the return of the earlier model GPT-4o.

An amusing yet embarrassing incident, referred to as the “chart crime,” was also highlighted where a presentation chart showed a lower benchmark score but with a much taller bar, leading to numerous jokes online.

GPT-5 introduces a real-time router which chooses the best model for a particular query, aiming to provide responsive or more thoughtful answers. This feature, however, failed initially, causing the model to appear “dumber” than expected. Altman explained the malfunction was due to the router’s failure on the model's release day but assured improvements.

Despite challenges, many community members still pushed for the return of GPT-4o for Plus subscribers, which Altman agreed to consider by gathering more data on tradeoffs. He also announced enhancements like doubling rate limits for Plus users to accommodate the new model’s demands.

In response to the presentation blunder of a misleading chart, Altman admitted to a “mega chart screwup” but noted that the accurate data was available in their published blog posts. Reviewer Simon Willison acknowledged the overall performance of GPT-5 but pointed out a weakness in converting data into tables.

Altman reassured that the company is focusing on stabilizing and enhancing the model based on user feedback.