ChatGPT's mannequin picker is again, and it is difficult

[ad_1] When OpenAI launched GPT-5 final week, the corporate mentioned the mannequin would simplify the ChatGPT expertise. OpenAI hoped GPT-5 would act as a type of “one dimension suits all” AI mannequin with a router that will routinely determine how you can finest reply person questions. The corporate mentioned this unified strategy would get rid of the necessity for customers to navigate its mannequin picker — a protracted, difficult menu of AI choices that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly mentioned he hates.

However it seems to be like GPT-5 just isn't the unified AI mannequin OpenAI hoped it will be.

Altman mentioned in a submit on X Tuesday that the corporate launched new “Auto”, “Quick”, and “Pondering” settings for GPT-5 that every 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 straight.

Updates to ChatGPT:

Now you can select between “Auto”, “Quick”, and “Pondering” for GPT-5. Most customers will need Auto, however the extra management shall be helpful for some folks.

Fee limits are actually 3,000 messages/week with GPT-5 Pondering, after which further capability on GPT-5 Pondering…

— Sam Altman (@sama) August 13, 2025

Alongside GPT-5’s new modes, Altman mentioned 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 had 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 submit 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.”

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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 had 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.

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GPT-5’s mannequin router additionally gave the impression to be largely damaged on launch day. That precipitated 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, it appears that evidently GPT-5’s router should not be satisfying for all customers.

“We’re not all the time going to get all the pieces on attempt #1 however I'm very pleased with how rapidly the group can iterate,” wrote OpenAI’s VP of ChatGPT, Nick Turley, in a submit on X Tuesday.

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

Extra broadly, some folks exhibit preferences for AI fashions that transcend quick or gradual responses. Some customers might just like the verbosity of 1 AI mannequin, whereas others may admire the contrarian solutions of one other.

Human attachment to sure AI fashions is a comparatively new idea that isn’t properly understood. For instance, tons of of individuals in San Francisco not too long ago 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 folks taking place psychotic rabbit holes.