# GPT-5 and Astra Launches

GPT-5, OpenAI's multimodal large language model, launched on August 7, 2025, advancing real-time AI with fast and reasoning models. Google's Astra (Gemini Live) also launched in 2025, competing in the multimodal AI space.

GPT-5 is a multimodal large language model developed by [OpenAI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/openai) and the fifth in its series of generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) foundation models. Preceded in the series by GPT-4, it was launched on August 7, 2025. It is publicly accessible to users of the chatbot products ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot as well as to developers through the OpenAI API. The launch marked a significant step in the evolution of [generative AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai), with a focus on real-time multimodal understanding and agentic capabilities.

In the same year, Google DeepMind launched Astra, also known as Gemini Live, a real-time multimodal AI assistant that competes directly with GPT-5 in the consumer and enterprise markets. Astra's launch, which occurred in 2025, emphasized seamless interaction with visual and auditory inputs, positioning it as a key rival to OpenAI's offering. This article focuses primarily on GPT-5, with references to Astra where relevant to the broader landscape.

## Background

On April 14, 2023, Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, spoke at an event at the [Massachusetts Institute of Technology](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/mit-csail) and said that the company was not training GPT-5 at that time. He stated that OpenAI was "prioritizing GPT-4 development" and that "we are not and won't for some time" release GPT-5. On July 18, OpenAI filed for a "GPT-5" trademark in the United States. On November 13, Altman confirmed to the Financial Times that the company was working to develop GPT-5.

According to The Information, "[f]or much of the second half of 2024, OpenAI was developing a model known internally as Orion and intended to become GPT-5", "[b]ut the Orion effort failed to produce a better model, and the company instead released it as GPT-4.5 in February [2025]." By late July 2025, OpenAI was widely anticipated as planning to release GPT-5 in early August. On July 30, The Verge reported that "Microsoft is getting ready for GPT-5" as "sources familiar with Microsoft's AI plans" told an editor that the company was testing a new mode for its Copilot chatbot that would offer a model that "thinks deeply or quickly based on the task". On August 5, in the leadup to the release of GPT-5, OpenAI released GPT-OSS, a set of two open-weight models that have reasoning capabilities. GPT-5 was then unveiled during a livestream event on August 7.

## Capabilities

At the time of its release, GPT-5 had state-of-the-art performance on benchmarks that test mathematics, programming, finance, and multimodal understanding. According to OpenAI, improvements over its predecessor models include faster response times, better coding and writing skills, more accurate answers to health questions, and lower levels of hallucination. Also, compared to previous models, GPT-5 aims to give safe, high-level responses to potentially harmful queries rather than outright declining them, an approach that OpenAI refers to as "safe completions", aiming to result "in GPT-5 being able to refuse more unsafe questions, while offering fewer rejections to users seeking harmless information." In addition, GPT-5 was trained to give more critical, "less effusively agreeable" answers compared to its predecessor models.

Days before the launch of GPT-5, two early testers of the model stated that they were "impressed" by its ability to code and to solve mathematical and scientific problems. They suggested that the model shows great improvement from GPT-4, but not as large of a gain as from GPT-3 to GPT-4. A day prior to the release of GPT-5, during a press briefing, Sam Altman, the chief executive officer of OpenAI, called GPT-5 "a significant step along the path to AGI", referring to artificial general intelligence, the hypothetical level of intelligence that OpenAI defines as the ability to perform any economically valuable task that a human can. According to Altman, GPT-5 is "significantly better" than its predecessors, offering "PhD-level" abilities across a wide range of tasks.

The exact energy consumption of GPT-5 use has not been disclosed by OpenAI. Researchers at the University of Rhode Island estimated that a medium-length response consumes slightly over 18 watt-hours, equivalent to using an incandescent bulb for 18 minutes.

## Architecture

GPT-5 is a system that contains a fast, high-throughput model, a deeper reasoning model, and a real-time router that decides which model to use based on conversation type, complexity, tool needs, and explicit user intent. Altman had previously criticized the manual model picker for being overly complex, suggesting a need for unification. GPT-5 also includes agentic functionality through which it can set up its own desktop and can use its browser to search autonomously for sources that relate to its task. The GPT-5 system card defines two fast, high-throughput models - gpt-5-main and gpt-5-main-mini - and two thinking models - gpt-5-thinking and gpt-5-thinking-mini. In the OpenAI API, developers can access the thinking model, its mini version, and gpt-5-thinking-nano, an even smaller and faster nano version of the thinking model. The version of GPT-5 that is accessible via the API has adjustable reasoning effort (low, medium, high, or minimal) and verbosity (low, medium, or high). Additionally, ChatGPT provides access to gpt-5-thinking with a setting that makes use of parallel test-time compute, referred to as gpt-5-thinking-pro.

## Safety and Limitations

Neuraltrust, a security research company, claimed to have successfully compromised GPT-5 within its first day of testing the model. According to its report, it enabled GPT-5 to generate detailed instructions for manufacturing explosive devices. SPLX, another company, conducted similar tests and came to similar conclusions about GPT-5's security. Their assessments suggest that GPT-5 has significant security gaps, potentially rendering it as being unsafe for use in a corporate environment.

Despite these concerns, OpenAI has emphasized its safety measures, including the "safe completions" approach and alignment techniques such as [reinforcement learning from human feedback](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/rlaif). However, the security vulnerabilities highlighted by external researchers indicate ongoing challenges in ensuring robust safety for advanced AI systems.

## Training

According to AIMultiple, GPT-5 is natively multimodal, meaning that it was trained from scratch on multiple modalities (like text and images) at once without relying on already-trained language or vision models. Its training process involved three stages: unsupervised pretraining, supervised fine-tuning, and reinforcement learning from human feedback. Pretraining used a large-scale multilingual dataset of books, articles, web pages, academic papers, and licensed sources. GPT-5's visual and text capabilities were described as having been developed alongside each other throughout training, unlike with GPT-4.

The training process leveraged advances in [transformer architectures](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/transformer) and [large language model](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model) techniques, including [multi-head attention](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/multi-head-attention) and [positional encoding](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/positional-encoding). The use of [data augmentation](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/data-augmentation) and [model pruning](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/model-pruning) also contributed to the model's efficiency and performance.

## Use and Integration

GPT-5 is used in ChatGPT. Although GPT-5 is free for all ChatGPT users, Plus users get higher use limits while Pro users get unlimited access to GPT-5 as well as limited access to GPT-5 Pro. Standard limits for lower-tier users on responses per hour still apply. Additionally, with the introduction of GPT-5, ChatGPT's "Advanced Voice Mode" was replaced by "ChatGPT Voice", which is supposed to enable more natural-sounding conversations. OpenAI stated that "Standard Voice Mode retires on September 9, 2025, unifying all users on ChatGPT Voice". On November 24, 2025, the feature of shopping research was added to ChatGPT, claimed to be a mini model post-trained on gpt-5-thinking-mini.

GPT-5 is also available in Microsoft Copilot, and Microsoft stated that it will incorporate GPT-5 into a wide variety of its products. According to 9to5Mac, Apple Inc. is planning to integrate the model into the Apple Intelligence feature in its iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe operating systems. It is also accessible via the OpenAI API, allowing developers to build applications on top of the model.

In comparison, Google's Astra (Gemini Live) is integrated into Google's ecosystem, including Android and Google Assistant, and offers similar real-time multimodal capabilities. The competition between OpenAI and [Google DeepMind](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/google-deepmind) has accelerated innovation in the field, with both companies pushing the boundaries of what AI assistants can do.

## Impact and Reception

The launch of GPT-5 has had a significant impact on the AI industry. Its state-of-the-art performance on benchmarks has set new standards for [artificial intelligence](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/artificial-intelligence) systems. The model's ability to handle complex tasks across multiple domains has been praised by early testers, though some noted that the improvement over GPT-4 is not as dramatic as the leap from GPT-3 to GPT-4.

Critics have raised concerns about the safety and security of GPT-5, particularly in light of the vulnerabilities reported by Neuraltrust and SPLX. These issues highlight the need for continued research into AI safety and alignment, a field that involves experts like [Joshua Tenenbaum](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/joshua-tenenbaum) and [Melanie Mitchell](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/melanie-mitchell).

Despite these challenges, GPT-5 is expected to drive widespread adoption of AI in various sectors, including education, healthcare, and software development. Its integration into products like Microsoft Copilot and Apple Intelligence suggests that it will become a ubiquitous tool for both consumers and enterprises.

## Conclusion

GPT-5 represents a major milestone in the development of [generative AI](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/generative-ai) and [large language models](https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/large-language-model). Its launch on August 7, 2025, alongside Google's Astra, marks a new era of real-time multimodal AI assistants. While challenges remain in terms of safety and energy consumption, the capabilities of GPT-5 demonstrate the rapid progress being made in the field. As AI continues to evolve, models like GPT-5 will likely play a central role in shaping the future of technology and society.

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Source: https://www.wikiprompt.org/wiki/gpt-5-astra-launches
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)
Last updated: 2026-09-13T03:52:52.46453+00:00