OpenAI’s GPT-5 draws mixed reviews in China amid heightened AI competition



OpenAI’s latest flagship artificial intelligence model, GPT-5, has drawn mixed reviews in China, where some critics expressed disappointment over the new system’s lack of breakthroughs.

At its live-streamed launch on Thursday in the US, GPT-5 was touted by OpenAI as its “smartest, fastest, most useful model yet, and a major step towards placing intelligence at the centre of every business”.

The new AI model features improved performance across coding, maths, writing, health and visual perception, among others. OpenAI described it as “a unified system” that features a built-in “thinking” function, with the ability to automatically switch between “standard” and “deep thinking” modes based on factors such as conversation, task types and query complexity.

The new system is “like a PhD-level expert in anything, any area”, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said at the launch.

In mainland China, where ChatGPT and other OpenAI services are not officially available, AI experts were confident that domestic users would not miss out on anything.
“GPT-5 is not significantly ahead of Chinese models, so it won’t put substantial pressure on Chinese researchers and developers,” said Zhang Linfeng, assistant professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, in a Saturday post on Xinchuang Shanghai, a WeChat public account affiliated with the state-backed newspaper Jiefang Daily.

GPT-5 “doesn’t come with revolutionary breakthroughs; it lacks memorable characteristics”, Zhang said.

  • Related Posts

    Developers roll out 360 flats at 2 Hong Kong projects amid improving sentiment

    Developers launched 360 flats across two projects in Hong Kong on Saturday, as builders continued to test buyer demand amid improving housing sentiment and expectations that future supply could tighten.…

    Continue reading
    Which Chinese stocks can help investors withstand Middle East war shocks?

    Chinese companies in several sectors – including energy, petrochemicals and agriculture – stand to benefit from surging oil prices and the yuan’s easing deflation, which analysts said could help investors…

    Continue reading

    Leave a Reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *