ChatGPT’s model picker is back, and it’s complicated

When OpenAI launched GPT-5 final week, the corporate stated the mannequin would simplify the ChatGPT expertise. OpenAI hoped GPT-5 would act as a kind of “one measurement suits all” AI mannequin with a router that will mechanically determine how one can finest reply person questions. The corporate stated this unified strategy would eradicate the necessity for customers to navigate its mannequin picker — a protracted, difficult menu of AI choices that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly stated he hates.

But it surely seems like GPT-5 will not be the unified AI mannequin OpenAI hoped it will be.

Altman stated in a put up on X Tuesday that the corporate launched new “Auto”, “Quick”, and “Pondering” settings for GPT-5 that each one ChatGPT customers can choose from the mannequin picker. The Auto setting appears to work like GPT-5’s mannequin router that OpenAI initially introduced; nevertheless, the corporate can be giving customers choices to circumnavigate it, permitting them to entry quick and gradual responding AI fashions instantly.

Alongside GPT-5’s new modes, Altman stated that paid customers can as soon as once more entry a number of legacy AI fashions — together with GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and o3 — which have been deprecated simply final week. GPT-4o is now within the mannequin picker by default, whereas different AI fashions could be added from ChatGPT’s settings.

“We’re engaged on an replace to GPT-5’s character which ought to really feel hotter than the present character however not as annoying (to most customers) as GPT-4o,” Altman wrote within the put up on X. “Nonetheless, one studying for us from the previous few days is we actually simply must get to a world with extra per-user customization of mannequin character.”

ChatGPT’s mannequin picker now appears to be as difficult as ever, suggesting that GPT-5’s mannequin router has not universally happy customers as the corporate hoped. The expectations for GPT-5 have been sky excessive, with many hoping that OpenAI would push the boundaries of AI fashions prefer it had with the launch of GPT-4. Nonetheless, GPT-5’s rollout has been rougher than anticipated.

The deprecation of GPT-4o and different AI fashions in ChatGPT sparked a backlash amongst customers who had grown connected to the AI fashions’ responses and personalities in ways in which OpenAI had not anticipated. Sooner or later, Altman says the corporate will give customers loads of advance discover if it ever deprecates GPT-4o.

GPT-5’s mannequin router additionally gave the impression to be largely damaged on launch day. That brought on some customers to really feel the AI mannequin wasn’t as performant as earlier OpenAI fashions, and compelled Altman to handle the issue in an AMA session on Reddit. Nonetheless, plainly GPT-5’s router should not be satisfying for all customers.

“We’re not all the time going to get every little thing on strive #1 however I’m very happy with how rapidly the staff can iterate,” wrote OpenAI’s VP of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, in a put up on X Tuesday.

Routing prompts to the appropriate AI mannequin is a tough activity that requires aligning an AI mannequin to a person’s preferences, in addition to the precise query they’re asking. The router then has to decide on which AI mannequin to ship the immediate to in only a break up second — that method, if a immediate goes to a quick responding AI mannequin, the response can nonetheless be quick.

Extra broadly, some individuals exhibit preferences for AI fashions that transcend quick or gradual responses. Some customers could just like the verbosity of 1 AI mannequin, whereas others would possibly recognize the contrarian solutions of one other.

Human attachment to sure AI fashions is a comparatively new idea that isn’t effectively understood. For instance, a whole lot of individuals in San Francisco lately held a funeral for Anthropic’s AI mannequin, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, when it was taken offline. In different circumstances, AI chatbots appear to be contributing to mentally unstable individuals happening psychotic rabbit holes.

It appears OpenAI has extra work to do round aligning its AI fashions to particular person person preferences.