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GPT-5 might arrive this summer as a materially better update to ChatGPT – Ars Technica

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When OpenAI launched its GPT-4 AI model a year ago, it created a wave of immense hype and existential panic from its ability to imitate human communication and composition. Since then, the biggest question in AI has remained the same: When is GPT-5 coming out? During interviews and media appearances around the world, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman frequently gets asked this question, and he usually gives a coy or evasive answer, sometimes coupled with promises of amazing things to come.

According to a new report from Business Insider, OpenAI is expected to release GPT-5, an improved version of the AI language model that powers ChatGPT, sometime in mid-2024and likely during the summer. Two anonymous sources familiar with the company have revealed that some enterprise customers have recently received demos of GPT-5 and related enhancements to ChatGPT.

One CEO who recently saw a version of GPT-5 described it as "really good" and "materially better," with OpenAI demonstrating the new model using use cases and data unique to his company. The CEO also hinted at other unreleased capabilities of the model, such as the ability to launch AI agents being developed by OpenAI to perform tasks automatically.

We asked OpenAI representatives about GPT-5's release date and the Business Insider report. They responded that they had no particular comment, but they included a snippet of a transcript from Altman's recent appearance on the Lex Fridman podcast.

Lex Fridman(01:06:13) So when is GPT-5 coming out again? Sam Altman(01:06:15) I dont know. Thats the honest answer. Lex Fridman(01:06:18) Oh, thats the honest answer. Blink twice if its this year. Sam Altman(01:06:30) We will release an amazing new model this year. I dont know what well call it. Lex Fridman(01:06:36) So that goes to the question of, whats the way we release this thing? Sam Altman(01:06:41) Well release in the coming months many different things. I think thatd be very cool. I think before we talk about a GPT-5-like model called that, or not called that, or a little bit worse or a little bit better than what youd expect from a GPT-5, I think we have a lot of other important things to release first.

In this conversation, Altman seems to imply that the company is prepared to launch a major AI model this year, but whether it will be called "GPT-5" or be considered a major upgrade to GPT-4 Turbo (or perhaps an incremental update like GPT-4.5) is up in the air.

Like its predecessor, GPT-5 (or whatever it will be called) is expected to be a multimodal large language model (LLM) that can accept text or encoded visual input (called a "prompt"). And like GPT-4, GPT-5 will be a next-token prediction model, which means that it will output its best estimate of the most likely next token (a fragment of a word) in a sequence, which allows for tasks such as completing a sentence or writing code. When configured in a specific way, GPT models can power conversational chatbot applications like ChatGPT.

OpenAI launched GPT-4 in March 2023 as an upgrade to its most major predecessor, GPT-3, which emerged in 2020 (with GPT-3.5 arriving in late 2022). Last November, OpenAI released GPT-4 Turbo, which lowered inference (running) costs of OpenAI's best AI model dramatically but has been plagued with accusations of "laziness" where the model sometimes refuses to answer prompts or complete coding projects as requested. OpenAI has attempted to fix the laziness issue several times.

LLMs like those developed by OpenAI are trained on massive datasets scraped from the Internet and licensed from media companies, enabling them to respond to user prompts in a human-like manner. However, the quality of the information provided by the model can vary depending on the training data used, and also based on the model's tendency to confabulate information. If GPT-5 can improve generalization (its ability to perform novel tasks) while also reducing what are commonly called "hallucinations" in the industry, it will likely represent a notable advancement for the firm.

According to the report, OpenAI is still training GPT-5, and after that is complete, the model will undergo internal safety testing and further "red teaming" to identify and address any issues before its public release. The release date could be delayed depending on the duration of the safety testing process.

Of course, the sources in the report could be mistaken, and GPT-5 could launch later for reasons aside from testing. So, consider this a strong rumor, but this is the first time we've seen a potential release date for GPT-5 from a reputable source. Also, we now know that GPT-5 is reportedly complete enough to undergo testing, which means its major training run is likely complete. Further refinements will likely follow.

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GPT-5 might arrive this summer as a materially better update to ChatGPT - Ars Technica

Ex-OpenAI Board Member Refuses to Say Why She Fired Sam Altman

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The now-former OpenAI board member who was instrumental in the firing of Sam Altman has spoken — but she's still staying mum where it matters.

Mum's The Word

The now-former OpenAI board member who was instrumental in the initial firing of CEO Sam Altman has spoken — but she's still staying mum on why she pushed him out in the first place.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, 31-year-old Georgetown machine learning researcher and erstwhile OpenAI board member Helen Toner was fairly open with her responses about the logistics of the failed coup at the company, but terse when it came to the reasoning behind it.

"Our goal in firing Sam was to strengthen OpenAI and make it more able to achieve its mission," the Australian-born researcher said as her only explanation of the headline-grabbing chain of events.

As the New York Times reported in the midst of the Thanksgiving hubbub, Toner and Altman butted heads the month prior because she published a paper critical of the firm's safety protocols (or lack thereof) and laudatory of those undertaken by Anthropic, which was created by former OpenAI employees who left over similar concerns.

Altman reportedly confronted Toner during their meeting and because he believed, per emails viewed by the NYT, that "any amount of criticism from a board member carries a lot of weight."

After the tense exchange, the CEO brought his concerns about Toner's criticisms up with other board members, which ended up reinforcing those board members' own doubts about his leadership, the WSJ reports. Soon after, Altman himself was on the chopping block over vague allegations of dishonesty — although we still don't know what exactly he was supposedly being dishonest about.

Intimidating

As the company weathered its tumult amid a nearly full-scale revolt from staffers who said they'd leave and follow Altman to Microsoft if he wasn't reinstated, Toner and OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever ended up resigning, the report explains, which paved the way for the CEO's return.

In her interview with the WSJ, however, the Georgetown researcher suggested that her resignation was forced by a company attorney.

"[The attorney] was trying to claim that it would be illegal for us not to resign immediately," Toner said, "because if the company fell apart we would be in breach of our fiduciary duties."

With the exit of the Aussie academic and Rand Corporation scientist Tasha McCauley, another of those who voted for Altman's ouster, from the board, there are now no women on OpenAI's governing body — but in this interview at least, Toner was all class.

"I think looking forward," she said, "is the best path from here."

More on OpenAI: Sam Altman Got So Many Texts After Being Fired It Broke His Phone

The post Ex-OpenAI Board Member Refuses to Say Why She Fired Sam Altman appeared first on Futurism.

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Ex-OpenAI Board Member Refuses to Say Why She Fired Sam Altman

OpenAI Cofounder Who Pushed Out Sam Altman Is In a Confusing Limbo

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After moving to oust Sam Altman, OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever is in a sort of limbo, and nobody seems to know what will happen next.

Do The Limbo

After moving to oust Sam Altman, OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever is in a sort of limbo, and nobody seems to know what will happen next.

As Business Insider reports based on interviews with people in the know — who spoke on the condition that their identities remain anonymous — it remains unclear what role Sutskever will play in the AI firm moving forward after turning on Altman just before OpenAI's Thanksgiving week massacre.

"Ilya is always going to have had an important role," one of those insiders said. "But, you know, there are a lot of other people who are picking up and taking that responsibility that historically Ilya had."

Ouch. Before the incredible failed coup at the company, Sutskever was far from a household name, and fewer still knew who he was before ChatGPT burst onto the scene a year ago.

Known primarily for his outlandish statements about algorithmic sentience, the Russian-born researcher is considered something of an "AI god" by his acolytes — and now is thought of as a traitor to others who think he won't be able to come back from voting alongside two fellow (and now former) OpenAI board members to fire Altman as CEO over vague accusations of dishonesty.

What's Going On

According to two insiders who spoke to BI, Sutskever hasn't been seen in the firm's San Francisco offices all week, and his position within the company is "to be determined," one of those sources said.

This isn't exactly surprising given that Altman hinted pretty explicitly in his note following his re-hiring as CEO that although he has "zero ill will" towards his fellow cofounder, the company is nevertheless "discussing how he can continue his work at OpenAI." In an interview with The Verge, however, the CEO did admit that he was "hurt and angry" that Sutskever had essentially shanked him Brutus-style.

Sutskever, for his part, has also been making some vague statements online suggesting continued tumult at OpenAI.

In one since-deleted tweet, he posted a reference to the memetic phrase "the beatings will continue until morale improves," which he said "applies more often than it has any right to." In another post made on his art Instagram, this one still up, he posted a stern-looking cloud head — though that one, at least, looks more like the artist himself than any of his coworkers.

As BI's sources described, the working relationship between Altman, Sutskever, and Greg Brockman — the other cofounder who resigned in solidarity with the CEO after his ouster, and who was brought back upon his return — has soured tremendously.

"Once trust is broken," one former staffer explained, "it cannot be regained."

More on OpenAI: Sam Altman's Right-Hand Man Says AI Is Overhyped

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OpenAI Cofounder Who Pushed Out Sam Altman Is In a Confusing Limbo