OpenAI CEO Sam Altman went so far as to call GPT-5 “the best model in the world.” That may be pride or hyperbole, as TechCrunch’s Maxwell Zeff reports that GPT-5 only slightly outperforms other leading AI models from Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI on some key benchmarks, and slightly lags on others.

GPT-5 is more than an upgrade. It aims to be a single, smarter system that blends reasoning, multimodality, cost efficiency, and usability into one.

OpenAI hopes its fastest, smartest model yet will help it fend off rising competition from Google, Meta, Anthropic, and Chinese startups.