(Updated Sept. 8, 2025)
In one of the most anticipated product launches of all-time, OpenAI just released a major update to ChatGPT, which is currently used by 700 million people — each week — worldwide.
The skinny: With ChatGPT-5, OpenAI is promising a faster, easier, smarter and much more accurate experience – although many long-term users have been turned-off by ChatGPT’s ‘new personality,’ which they find cold and distant.
Either way, as anticipated, ChatGPT-5’s release has dramatically altered the AI landscape.
Here are the Top Ten Takeaways:
*Expect PhD-level Intelligence: No matter what the question, ChatGPT-5 is trained to respond to you on the PhD level.
ChatGPT-5 Thinking especially makes good on that promise and has delivered extremely well — in my experience — when requested to engage in deep research.
*For Writing, Stick With GPT-4o for the Short-Term: While GPT-5 in all forms is billed as the smartest version of ChatGPT, GPT-4o is still the best, overall, creative and compelling writing tool for cranking out articles, blogs, books, fiction and the like.
The reason: The ChatGPT-5 upgrade was focused on making the tool much smarter in the hard sciences — and especially computer coding.
But it did so at the expense of writing style.
Essentially, many users, including yours truly, find the initial relase of ChatGPT-5 in all its forms — ‘Auto,’ ‘Fast,’ ‘Thinking’ — cold and terse.
Plus, when using ChatGPT-5 Thinking, the resulting writing can be extremely dense.
Equally disappointing: ChatGPT-5 Thinking often assumes an insider’s understanding of the subject matter, leading to many concepts expressed in opaque shorthand.
Flair, style and wit — that’s just not happening with ChatGPT-5 right now.
ChatGPT’s maker is promising that ChatGPT-5 will ultimately be able to write in an extremely creative, compelling and vivid style.
But for now, ChatGPT-4o is still the go-to for the best writing experience.
(As soon as things change, this article will be updated.)
*Feel Free to Interrupt ChatGPT for a Quick Answer: This feature is one of the workarounds when using the slower-responding – but smarter – GPT-5 Thinking. You can click the “Skip” link inside GPT-5 Thinking any time you’re using that AI engine and believe a weaker AI engine can deliver a good enough response.
*Look for Faster Responses: Early adopters report that using ChatGPT-5 is faster overall. Observes Nick Turley, head of product, ChatGPT: “You really get the best of both worlds. You have it reason when it needs to reason, but you don’t have to wait as long.”
*Expect Fewer Hallucinations/Made-up Facts: Early adopters also report ChatGPT-5 is less prone to make-up facts. In fact, sometimes ChatGPT-5 will now simply admit it does not have an answer for you. Other times, it will ask you follow-up questions to try and clarify your question.
One caveat: ChatGPT-5 Instant — the model’s fastest form of — can have problems keeping basic facts straight.
In my own experience, for example, ChatGPT-5 Instant delivered the wrong drive times sought between two cities — on two occasions. Plus, it also delivered the wrong transit time between two cities by train.
*Even at the Free Level, Get Access to the Most Powerful Version: With ChatGPT-5, even free users get access – albeit limited – to the most powerful AI engine available from its maker, OpenAI. Previously, free users were only given access to weaker AI engines.
*Bank-on Using Advanced Voice Mode for Free, if You Prefer: If you like interacting with ChatGPT using just your voice, you can do so even at the free level now. Plus, those who currently use Advanced Voice with their paid subscription should expect higher usage limits.
*Gear-up for a New ChatGPT Personality: In addition to its writing style, early adopters report that GPT-5’s default personality is bland and distant. Overall: GPT-5 is not interested in being your friend. Instead, it’s optimized to bring back results, get the job done and move on. Period.
While some users prefer this ‘no-nonsense’ personality, others have been seriously turned-off.
Again, ChatGPT’s maker is promising a more engaging personality for ChatGPT-5 ASAP.
*Get Up-to-Speed on a New Prompting Style: ChatGPT’s maker has released a specially designed prompting guide for getting the most out of ChatGPT-5.
The promise: Learn to make nice with a new prompting style and you can make ChatGPT-5 soar.
*Check-Out the Excellent, First-Take Video Overviews on GPT-5 Already Available: Fortunately, YouTube is awash with a number of extremely informative videos on what ChatGPT-5 looks like in action. Here are some choice picks:
–Introducing GPT-5: This is the one-hour-plus video that ChatGPT’s maker released with the official launch of ChatGPT-5. It’s a great place to start for a detailed overview of all the new features -– albeit from the ‘proud parent’ perspective of ChatGPT-5’s creator.
–7 Big Changes in GPT-5 (With Live Demos): Matt Maher offers an excellent, concise and balanced look at how ChatGPT-5 performs in this 22-minute video. Maher’s take is mostly positive -– but he also includes some reservations about some downsides.
–What People Love and Hate About GPT-5: This 8-minute, AI Daily Brief (AIDB) video offers an unvarnished critique of the new GPT-5. People jazzed about the new release feel GPT-5’s ability to pick the right AI engine for every question is, on balance, the right move, according to AIDB.
And they also report lightning-quick responses and expect GPT-5’s true power will only be revealed over time.
On the downside: ChatGPT-5’s one-size-fits-all, auto AI engine picker too often picks an engine that is weaker than what’s actually needed, according to AIDB.
–GPT-5 in Microsoft 365 Copilot: Turns-out Microsoft wasted no time embedding GPT-5 as one of the AI engines you can use with its own chatbot, Microsoft Copilot. Click here for the 53-second video.
–10 Things That GPT-5 Changes: The AI Daily Brief offers an extremely thoughtful, 19-minute analysis of how things change long-term now that GPT-5 is live.
–AI Insiders Breakdown the GPT-5 Update: Peter Diamandis and friends – some of the top minds in AI – offer an extremely in-depth examination of the GPT-5 release in this nearly two-hour video.
Share a Link: Please consider sharing a link to https://RobotWritersAI.com from your blog, social media post, publication or emails. More links leading to RobotWritersAI.com helps everyone interested in AI-generated writing.
–Joe Dysart is editor of RobotWritersAI.com and a tech journalist with 20+ years experience. His work has appeared in 150+ publications, including The New York Times and the Financial Times of London.
The post ChatGPT-5 Released: Top Ten Takeaways appeared first on Robot Writers AI.
