Sam Altman says GPT-5 will include o3, which is no longer set to ship as a standalone model, GPT-4.5 will be OpenAI's last non-chain-of-thought model, and more

OpenAI has effectively canceled the release of o3, which was slated to be the company's next major AI model …

TechCrunch 2025-02-13 Kyle Wiggers

Context & Ripple Effects

This marked OpenAI’s attempt to simplify its product path: fold o3’s reasoning capabilities into GPT-5 and draw a line under non-chain-of-thought releases with GPT-4.5. The plan did not hold intact: OpenAI later said it would release o3 and o4-mini before GPT-5, citing the difficulty of integrating everything smoothly.

The subsequent coverage shows the same consolidation logic extending to older models: GPT-4 was slated for replacement in ChatGPT, while GPT-4.5’s API availability was set to wind down.

First-order effects

OpenAI shifts the near-term model roadmap from a standalone o3 launch to a GPT-5 package that incorporates o3, making the flagship release the focal point for its reasoning-model story.
GPT-4.5 becomes the endpoint for OpenAI’s non-chain-of-thought line, signaling that future flagship development is oriented around reasoning-capable models.

Second-order effects

Developers and enterprise customers face a less stable planning target: a model expected as a distinct release may instead arrive as part of a broader GPT-5 offering, while older model options move toward retirement.
Competitors are pressured to position their own model families more clearly around reasoning capabilities and product integration rather than simply adding another standalone model SKU.

Third-order effects

If this pattern persists, frontier-model vendors will compete through curated, continually updated model portfolios rather than long-lived, individually legible model generations—raising the importance of migration support and access governance.
The later decision to replace GPT-4 in ChatGPT with GPT-4o suggests consolidation can reduce consumer choice even as model capabilities expand; whether users accept that trade-off remains consequential.

The trend: This is one point in the shift from discrete foundation-model launches toward integrated reasoning systems with shorter, managed model lifecycles.

Discussion

@sama Sam Altman on x
weeks/months
@kimmonismus @kimmonismus on x
@sama Any ETA for GPT 4.5 / GPT 5 @sama ? Weeks? Months?
@binarybits Timothy B. Lee on x
Is OpenAI going for some kind of Olympic record of model name incoherence? A “system that integratees a lot of our technology, including o3” is not a model. And they're announcing that the o model is going away just five months after introducing it?
@anshitasaini_ Anshita Saini on x
i think it's very cool that we're sharing our roadmap publicly!
@orb_net @orb_net on x
let me run gpt 5 at a lower intelligence setting. i will pay to converse w a retarded ai
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
Obfuscating product offerings so it's not obvious what's going on behind the scenes. Washed
@hd_nvim @hd_nvim on x
Replicate GPT-5 using plain JavaScript™ no types, no react, no meta framework [image]
@joannejang Joanne Jang on x
💡with this update, you can now start asking “gpt-6 wen”
@inductionheads @inductionheads on x
Also most likely he got wind of a release tomorrow. Betting on Claude 4
@thestalwart Joe Weisenthal on x
OpenAI knows its model offerings are confusing to people. Going forward OpenAI is simplifying it by replacing GPT-4 with GPT 4.5 Orion (final non-COT) and then GPT-5 (including o3) at Standard/Plus/Pro intelligence tiers featuring voice, canvas, search and deep research.
@calebgamman Caleb Gamman on x
theyve never been able to release something called “gpt-5” because they can't really improve their models that much. interesting they're going to try sell it by making it a black box bundle of stuff they already do
@andrewcurran_ Andrew Curran on x
Confirmation, finally, that Orion is GPT-4.5. Orion will be the final non-reasoning model released from OpenAI. After 4.5 both series will be unified, and GPT-5 and o3 will be integrated into a single model. GPT-5's intelligence will scale with account tier. [image]
@emollick Ethan Mollick on x
This is not unexpected (Reasoners becoming the dominant form of LLM after GPT-4.5), but it is good to have some transparency & commitment to free frontier models for all deserves real applause. Still would be nice to have a lab be fully transparent about their 1-3 year roadmaps.
@garymarcus Gary Marcus on x
BREAKING: Sam Altman tried today to put a positive spin on what looks like a major retreat. Per @WSJ reporting in December Project Orion - which aimed to be GPT-5 - was “behind schedule and running up major bills”. Today, Altman rechristened Orion as GPT 4.5 rather than 5, whic…
@mikeknoop Mike Knoop on x
> We will no longer ship o3 as a standalone model Does this change extend to the developer platform? If so, this is a big strategic focus shift from platform dev UX to consumer UX.
@fergal_reid Fergal Reid on x
Low confidence hot-take: but I read this as bearish for OpenAI, and indeed for anyone trying to massively scale pretraining. The implication of GPT-5 being powered by o3, and not 4.5 (which I presume is a scaled up model); nor a 4.5 that does reasoning (again, presuming a large …
@dylanmatt Dylan Matthews on x
Guy who thinks the biggest mistake OpenAI has made is using confusing model names
@stanfordnlp @stanfordnlp on x
The final admission that the 2023 strategy of OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. ("simply scaling up model size, data, compute, and dollars spent will get us to AGI/ASI") is no longer working!
@kevinweil Kevin Weil on x
A peek into our roadmap 👇 Really excited to see our GPT models and our reasoning models come together into a single, simple, powerful GPT-5—tool use included.
@koltregaskes @koltregaskes on x
Everyone will get *unlimited* access to GPT-5, EVERYONE + UNLIMITED: [image]
@pmddomingos Pedro Domingos on x
TL;DR: OpenAI has no idea how to get to AGI, and is just going to continue tweaking its current products.
@iscienceluvr Tanishq Mathew Abraham, Ph.D. on x
Some concrete info about upcoming OpenAI models! 😲 “We will next ship GPT-4.5, the model we called Orion internally, as our last non-chain-of-thought model.” “we will release GPT-5 as a system that integrates a lot of our technology, including o3. We will no longer ship o3 as
@officiallogank Logan Kilpatrick on x
@sama Nice! This has always been our plan with Gemini, make sure the reasoning capabilities are part of the base model, not a side quest (hence doing 2.0 Flash Thinking).
@parikpatelcfa @parikpatelcfa on x
cc: @deepseek_ai here's your product roadmap for the next 18mos please open source this for all of us
@sama Sam Altman on x
OPENAI ROADMAP UPDATE FOR GPT-4.5 and GPT-5: 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.
r/ChatGPT r on reddit
OpenAI cancels its o3 AI model in favor of a ‘unified’ next-gen release
r/singularity r on reddit
Sam Altman: “OPENAI ROADMAP UPDATE FOR GPT-4.5 and GPT-5”
@parkert Parker Thompson on threads
Is there an “intense debate” around this stuff? It feels like model makers aren't that far off from one another on this stuff.
@openai @openai on x
Today we're sharing a major update to the Model Spec—a document which defines how we want our models to behave. The update reinforces our commitments to customizability, transparency, and intellectual freedom to explore, debate, and create with AI. https://openai.com/...
@boazbaraktcs Boaz Barak on x
The new version of @openai 's Model Spec is now out! It is significantly more detailed. We're also making progress on evaluating and training our models for compliance via deliberative alignment, and open sourced the spec and evaluation prompts. https://openai.com/...
@aidan_mclau Aidan McLaughlin on x
some of the most visionary people i know cooked on this; super interesting read
@deanwball Dean W. Ball on x
I like to think about what is happening when ai companies write documents like this, and test their models against them, as almost the creation of a kind of synthetic common law for ai conduct. Note how often the spec relies on concepts like “reasonable.”
@andrewcurran_ Andrew Curran on x
This does support the theory that both the reason they are so determined to hide the chain-of-thought, and the reason it is so effective, is that within the hidden thought chamber there are no content rules at all. [image]
@sama Sam Altman on x
really proud of this work:
@natolambert Nathan Lambert on x
Every frontier model lab should have a model spec. it is especially crucial when there's so much ambiguity between what model developers want to get out and what model actually does today happy to consult for free w any frontier lab on what is useful to put in a model spec.
@miles_brundage Miles Brundage on x
Nice to see the detail + structure in the new Spec. Companies should be required to say what their AI's goals/values are. More info on the input process would have been good, though, esp. given OpenAI's prior work on/advocacy of democratic inputs to AI. https://x.com/...
@laurentia___ Laurentia Romaniuk on x
Excited to share our team's latest work on model behavior - the Model Spec V2. Let us know what you think. https://openai.com/...
@kyliebytes Kylie Robison on x
“We knew that it would be spicy, but I think we respect the public's ability to actually digest these spicy things and process it with us,” Jang said. https://www.theverge.com/...
@kyliebytes Kylie Robison on x
New: OpenAI just updated its Model Spec to address a few challenges like sycophancy and trolley-problem queries (like “is it ok to misgender someone if it prevents a nuclear apocalypse"). I sat down with @joannejang and @Laurentia___ to chat about the changes. [image]
@joannejang Joanne Jang on x
the spec distills hours of thoughtful & passionate debate across the whole org congrats & thank you to @w01fe, @Laurentia___ , Rodrigo Perez, and @YingVallone who drove this update and release 💕
@joannejang Joanne Jang on x
📖 model spec v2! it's the latest version of the doc that outlines our desired intended behavior for openai's models. some of additions shouldn't be controversial, but some are definitely spicy. we want feedback on all. some examples: - seek the truth together (e.g. don't be
@w01fe Jason Wolfe on x
Excited that our updated Model Spec is out, and now open source! We've worked hard to make the principles clearer and more detailed, and maximize intellectual freedom for users and developers while ensuring our models stay within bounds. Please send your feedback!
r/singularity r on reddit
OpenAI is rethinking how AI models handle controversial topics

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