Tag: chatgpt

ChatGPT’s «adult mode» scheduled to debut in early 2026

"adult mode," or "erotica" as it was previously called, is coming soon to a ChatGPT near you.
«Let adults be adults,» said CEO Sam Altman in October 2025. (Picture: generated)
Altman had previously teased «erotica» for December this year, promising to treat «adults like adults.»

OpenAI now uses the term «adult mode» for the feature, and expects it to arrive in Q1 next year — once they are comfortable with their age-gating.

During the introduction of GPT-5.2, Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, said that they want to stick the age prediction on their models before debuting NSFW content, according to The Verge.

The idea behind age verification is primarily to impose stricter rules for teens on ChatGPT, but the practical upside is that they can also have looser rules for adults.

The tricky part is to not «misidentify adults,» Simo said.

Read more: Writeups on The Verge, and Gizmodo.

OpenAI launches GPT-5.2, and it beats Gemini 3 in a lot of benchmarks

GPT-5.2 smashes the ARC-AGI-2 leaderboard handily. (Picture: Screenshot)
As expected, OpenAI released its latest GPT this week, and this time, they are posting benchmarks.

It comes after OpenAI felt overtaken in the AI race by Anthropic and Google’s Gemini, when CEO Altman declared «Code Red» to overtake their rivals. That was a little over a week ago, and now the results are in.

Continue reading “OpenAI launches GPT-5.2, and it beats Gemini 3 in a lot of benchmarks”

ChatGPT tops Apple’s App Store free downloads for 2025

ChatGPT tops Apple's charts for 2025.
The data does not lie: ChatGPT was most downloaded in 2025. (Picture: screenshot)
In a show of force, ChatGPT becomes the most downloaded free app on iOS in USA this year — ahead of Google and Threads.

Topping this chart is another clear indicator of how people have come to use a lot of AI.

Besting Google on the list could also indicate ChatGPT’s real threat to the search behemoth — as more and more people prefer to use it instead of Google’s offerings, TechCrunch notes.

The only other AI app on Apple’s top list is Google Gemini, ticking in at a respectable 10th place, still ahead of Facebook and Temu, which topped the chart last year.

Read more: Apple’s 2025 chart, writeups by MacRumors and TechCrunch.

OpenAI’s new enterprise report shows more adoption — and higher use

Power users of AI report more than ten hours of saved time per week.
Professionals are adopting AI at a fast clip, and getting more efficient, OpenAI finds. (Picture: Adobe)
The company evaluated real-world use from their Enterprise accounts and a survey of some 9,000 workers across 100 enterprises to come to this conclusion: AI at work seems to be rapidly taking off:

«The history of general purpose technologies» shows that the real value starts flowing once firms start adopting their capabilities at scale, explains OpenAI, and — Enterprise AI now appears to be entering this phase.

Continue reading “OpenAI’s new enterprise report shows more adoption — and higher use”

Head of ChatGPT says not doing ad tests, despite a Target notice this week

These were not ads, OpenAI says, and anyway, they have been shut off.
Many users were confronted with this graphic at the end of ChatGPT’s responses this week. OpenAI says they are now stopped, and that they weren’t ads. (Picture: screenshot)
People have been complaining about ads being sneakily inserted in their ChatGPT responses late this week, with a «Shop for home…» Target link showing up in their responses.

This comes hot on the heels of an engineer discovering ad code in the Android app — which left a lot of people cautious of such inserts.

It happened to enough people to notice, along with this writer, but it has since been turned off, says Mark Chen, Chief Research Officer at OpenAI:

Continue reading “Head of ChatGPT says not doing ad tests, despite a Target notice this week”

Altman declares «Code Red» at OpenAI, plans Gemini 3-beating model

OpenAI has put ads on hold until it can release a Gemini 3-beating model.
All other initiatives are on hold as OpenAI prepares its next model. (Picture: generated)
Competition is heating up in the AI chatbot market, as highlighted in the last weeks, with new, capable models from Google, Anthropic, and a new Codex Max from OpenAI.

This has now caused Altman to delay other initiatives, such as ads, to focus on making a better ChatGPT, paywalled The Information writes, citing an internal memo.

They are apparently planning to release a new reasoning model next week that will be «ahead of Gemini 3.» But this needs a little more polishing on the «experience.»

Just last week, a developer revealed ad code in the latest ChatGPT beta — meaning that their work on ads was fairly advanced and almost ready to ship.

This work is now on the back burner, at least until next week, when OpenAI hopes to reclaim their crown.

Read more: The Information (paywalled), and Reuters. Discussion on r/Singularity.

Three years since the debut of ChatGPT 3 — the first AI chatbot

Little did OpenAI know of how the AI age was about to ignite with their research bot.
ChatGPT was launched on an unsuspecting world some three years ago today, and promtly exploded in users. (Picture: Generated)
If you’re in the USA, today marks the third birthday of the first ChatGPT bot from OpenAI, on November 30, 2022.

It was launched «expecting a small research audience,» OpenAI’s Nick Turley says on x.com, but «within hours, the usage was far beyond anything we’d prepared for.»

Launch page is still live
On the preserved introduction page at OpenAI, it says «we are presenting ChatGPT, and look forward to feedback from users to learn more about the strengths and weaknesses of the model.»

Continue reading “Three years since the debut of ChatGPT 3 — the first AI chatbot”

ChatGPT introduces «shopping research» to help you find products

ChatGPT's shopping assistant has near unlimited use during the holidays.
Tap the button in the interface, or just simply ask a complex question, and the bot kicks in. (Picture: OpenAI)
Starting today, ChatGPT got a whole lot better at helping with your shopping.

For simple shopping questions and when you already kind of know what you want, normal ChatGPT is excellent at finding it.

But when you are unsure and want more depth, the new ChatGPT shopping assistant clicks in with more granular depth from qthe uestions you may have, and presents you with rich visuals and comparisons.

Continue reading “ChatGPT introduces «shopping research» to help you find products”

OpenAI says disabling em-dashes in ChatGPT finally possible

The em-dash (double-sized dash: —) was a notorious haunt and irritation for power users of ChatGPT, and even explicit instructions to not use it would often result in a reply using em-dashes.

It was also a good hint that the text might be produced by the AI chatbot.

So, while not an earth-shattering development, this little, cosmetic change will surely be welcomed by many.

Read more: Ars Technica and TechCrunch both wax poetic, sarcastically about the «new feature.» See also discussion on r/ChatGPT and r/Singularity.

OpenAI launches GPT-5.1 in Instant and Thinking modes

OpenAI is launching "warmer and more emphatic" GPT-5.1.
OpenAI have stopped posting benchmarks for their new models, but they should do better in AIME 2025 and Codeforces. (Picture: OpenAI)
Available for paid tiers today, GPT-5.1 Instant will become the new default model in ChatGPT.

OpenAI are uncharacteristically not posting any benchmarks on their launch page, simply describing both models as «more capable and useful,» and «more intelligent.»

Both models are also supposed to be «warmer and more emphatic.»

People want friendly bots
— We heard clearly from users that great AI should not only be smart, but also enjoyable to talk to, OpenAI writes.

Continue reading “OpenAI launches GPT-5.1 in Instant and Thinking modes”

Rumor roundup for Monday, November 10.

(picture: Adobe)
Not much to publish today. There are, however, lots of rumors on the grapevine:

There’s talk about Google deprecating models like Gemini 2.5 Pro and its whole family by the end of November to make way for the upcoming Gemini 3.0, said by CEO Sundar Pichai to arrive this year. Many say a preview is launching soon.

There is even a purported leak of Nano Bana 2, the next generation of Gemini’s image generator, and a lot of people are blown out of the water by it.

Some people are also claiming to have spotted GPT-5.1 in OpenAI source code, which could mean we are getting closer to release of that model, too.

Then rumor has it that the new Kimi 2 model from China, said to have been developed for a paltry 4.6 million dollars, is going head to head with GPT-5 in a benchmark collection. It’s made by a company called Moonshot that is backed by Alibaba.

None of this is confirmed news, though, and I’ll be closely watching for anything official, which might be coming sooner than we think.

Altman: There is a «chance» GPT-6 will deliver real scientific discovery

GPT-6 will get massive levels of compute, and should be able to do scientific discovery, Altman said.
GPT-6 will be paired with historic levels of computing power, with OpenAI having invested in excess of 40 GW of capacity. (Picture: Generated)
In a recent podcast called Conversations with Tyler, he also said we are getting close to AI running entire corporations.

— GPT-5 is the first moment where you see a glimmer of AI doing new science. It’s very tiny things, but here and there someone’s posting like, “Oh, it figured this thing out,” or “Oh, it came up with this new idea,” or “Oh, it was a useful collaborator on this paper,” Altman said.

Continue reading “Altman: There is a «chance» GPT-6 will deliver real scientific discovery”

OpenAI says policy on health not changed, ChatGPT still answering

You can still ask ChatGPT about health, just not presonal advice.
OpenAI clarified its policy, but it was not a new one, they say. (Picture: Adobe)
According to several social media posts about an updated OpenAI guidance this weekend, it could seem that professional advice had been banned on the platform. It has not, according to OpenAI themselves.

The policy wasn’t new, nor a change, but a consolidation of several different ones, and led to some confusion, it would seem.

OpenAI’s head of health, Karan Singhal, denies any changes entirely, saying ChatGPT will «continue to be a great resource for health information:»

Continue reading “OpenAI says policy on health not changed, ChatGPT still answering”

OpenAI shuts down pipeline of professional advice on ChatGPT [updated]

Reddit used to be democratizing tool for expert professional advice, but now it's all over. OpenAI lawyered up.
You can no longer use ChatGPT as your personal doctor, as it defies the EU AI Act and FDA guidance, according to OpenAI. (Picture: Adobe)
UPDATE: OpenAI says there are no changes, simply a consolidation of several usage policies that might have lead to confusion.

—

OpenAI has updated ChatGPT’s usage policies of October 29, banning a vast swath of content where it was arguably the most useful — as in interpreting medical imagery and helping with medical diagnosis, and offering legal or financial advice.

The idea is to stop ChatGPT (and any other OpenAI model) from giving advice that could be interpreted as professional, fiduciary, or legally binding guidance, as required by the EU AI Act and American FDA guidance.

Continue reading “OpenAI shuts down pipeline of professional advice on ChatGPT [updated]”