Shitting not only affects streaming. We begin to see indications that the chatbots of AI are no longer so beneficial for users, and they are not for a simple reason: they must be monetizing them. It is what OpenAi has just done when launching GPT-5, a model that promised to be easier to use and powerful than ever, but has ended up returning to what worked with GPT-4.
The controversial router. When Openai launched GPT-5, he did it with a great novelty: to raise it as a unique model that adapted only to the needs of each user according to the question we asked him. The router detected if that question was more or less complicated and theoretically activated the most appropriate mode of operation in each case, but there was a problem: always using the cheapest operation mode.
Reverse. People-especially those who used chatgpt-quickly criticized both that decision and the option to use ancient models such as GPT-4O. The riot had an effect, because:
- He has recovered the old models he had killed (such as the aforementioned GPT-4O), although only for payment users
- Has enabled the function of choosing GPT-5 variant to free users
It is a spectacular revenue just when Openai had sold us that unique and off -road model (and its router) as something differential.
The options are good. Altman himself explained that from now on Chatgpt users will be able to choose between “Auto”, “Fast” and “Thinking” when using GPT-5. “Most users will want to use a car,” he said, “but additional control will be useful for some.” He also remembered that GPT-4O is again available for payment users and clarified that “if at any time we deactivate it, we will warn with a long time.”
Less root, more customizable. The OpenAi CEO also talked about another of the problems that were highly criticized in GPT-5: it was too neutral. Too cold and robotic. That could change very soon because as I said, “we are working on an update of the GPT-5 personality that should be perceived warmer than the current but not so annoying (for many users) as GPT-4O.” In Openai they have understood something important: people love to be able to customize everything they use … although many do not.
A GPT-5 hypothesis. In SEMIANALYSIS they have a curious theory that according to them would explain the way Openai has launched GPT-5. According to them, the model of the model is not the model, but the router. This component was intended to monetize the service much more and convince users to pass the free service to one of the payment subscriptions.
Altman already pointed to that approach. In fact, Sam Altman shared first revealing data on Sunday. The percentage of free users who were using the “reasoning” variant of GPT-5 had gone from less than 1% to 7%, while for Chatgpt Plus users that percentage went from 7% to 24%. That can imply that the basic model was not as good as users expected and preferred to make him think, but there is another striking fact.
More subscriptions. According to Semiianalysis, the router and that best behavior when the “thinks” model seems to have convinced many more users, and subscriptions, they point out, have multiplied by 3.5. The router may have caused criticism of intensive chatgpt users, but it also seems to be a key element to try to achieve something OpenAi needs like water: convert free users – it has about 700 million – into paid users.
Shit. Openai’s tactics, if really this, is not new. To degrade the free service with respect to the payment usually makes more users go to the payment (in addition to the initial criticisms). We have seen it for example in Netflix: when it began to close shared accounts and put internet ads, it was thrown over and the service seemed to have a complicated future. Today Netflix is more reference than ever and the shit of its service has worked perfectly. You may want to copy the idea in Openai.
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