OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced the company’s roadmap for the upcoming GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 AI models in a post on X on Wednesday, stating that the product lineup has become overly complicated.
OpenAI’s roadmap for GPT-4.5 and GPT-5 unveiled by Sam Altman
Altman highlighted that OpenAI intends to simplify its offerings, expressing dissatisfaction with the current model selection process.
“We want to do a better job of sharing our intended roadmap, and a much better job simplifying our product offerings. We want AI to “just work” for you; we realize how complicated our model and product offerings have gotten. We hate the model picker as much as you do and want to return to magic unified intelligence. We will next ship GPT-4.5, the model we called Orion internally, as our last non-chain-of-thought model. After that, a top goal for us is to unify o-series models and GPT-series models by creating systems that can use all our tools, know when to think for a long time or not, and generally be useful for a very wide range of tasks. In both ChatGPT and our API, we will release GPT-5 as a system that integrates a lot of our technology, including o3. We will no longer ship o3 as a standalone model. The free tier of ChatGPT will get unlimited chat access to GPT-5 at the standard intelligence setting (!!), subject to abuse thresholds. Plus subscribers will be able to run GPT-5 at a higher level of intelligence, and Pro subscribers will be able to run GPT-5 at an even higher level of intelligence. These models will incorporate voice, canvas, search, deep research, and more,” Altman stated on an X post.
GPT-5 could be your new teacher
The company plans to release GPT-4.5, internally referred to as Orion, which Altman described as the last non-chain-of-thought model from OpenAI. Following the launch of GPT-4.5, Altman emphasized that a primary goal is to unify the o-series and GPT-series models. This unification will allow systems to utilize all of OpenAI’s tools, determine when to engage in complex reasoning, and cater to a broad range of tasks.
With ChatGPT and OpenAI’s API, GPT-5 will integrate a significant amount of the company’s technology, including o3. Altman confirmed that o3 will no longer be available as a standalone model after this transition.
Once GPT-5 is released, free ChatGPT users will receive “unlimited chat access” at a standard intelligence setting, while Plus subscribers will experience a higher level of intelligence, with Pro subscribers accessing an even higher tier. Altman did not specify exact release dates for GPT-4.5 and GPT-5, providing only an estimate of “weeks / months.”
In a separate development, Elon Musk recently made a bid of $97.4 billion to purchase OpenAI’s nonprofit arm, though the board of directors plans to reject the offer.
Featured image credit: Dima Solomin/Unsplash
