Sam Altman Addresses GPT-5 Issues During Reddit AMA

During a Reddit ask-me-anything session on Friday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and key members of the GPT-5 team answered questions about the new model and received multiple requests to restore GPT-4o, the previous version.

Chart Controversy Discussed

Users also asked about the presentation’s most embarrassing moment, the so-called “chart crime,” which quickly became a viral joke.

New GPT-5 Features and Router Issues

One major update in GPT-5 is a real-time router that chooses which model to use for a prompt, balancing speed with deeper reasoning. However, several AMA participants noted that GPT-5 did not perform as well as GPT-4o. Altman explained that the router malfunctioned on Thursday, making GPT-5 seem “dumber” than expected.

“GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today. Yesterday, we had a sev and the autoswitcher was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber. Also, we are making some interventions to how the decision boundary works that should help you get the right model more often. We will make it more transparent about which model is answering a given query,” Altman said.

Potential Return of GPT-4o

AMA participants requested that GPT-4o be brought back for Plus subscribers. Altman replied that the team is considering this: “We are looking into letting Plus users continue to use 4o. We are trying to gather more data on the tradeoffs.”

He also announced plans to double rate limits for Plus users during the rollout, allowing more freedom to explore and adapt to GPT-5 without worrying about prompt limits.

The “Chart Crime” Incident

The infamous presentation chart displayed an inaccurate benchmark score with a disproportionately tall bar. Altman acknowledged the error on X, calling it a “mega chart screwup,” though the charts in the blog post were correct. Jokes about using GPT for charts circulated widely, with early GPT-5 reviewer Simon Willison noting that converting data into a table highlighted a GPT-5 limitation.

Commitment to Improvements

Altman concluded the AMA by assuring users that OpenAI will address the most pressing issues and continue gathering feedback: “We will continue to work to get things stable and will keep listening to feedback.”