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Altman in the Iron Mask

The poor reception of GPT-5 is likely due, in part, to growing doubts that Altman’s long-espoused goal of achieving A.G.I. is as close as he claims. If it isn’t, the industry has much larger problems on its hands.

Sam Altman
Social media has been inundated with viral posts chronicling the unfortunate screw-ups of Altman’s self-described, pocket-sized “Ph.D.-level” intelligence system —struggling with basic math, drawing wildly inaccurate maps of the world, a persistent inability to count the number of Bs in blueberry, etcetera. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Ian Krietzberg
August 12, 2025

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When OpenAI launched its highly anticipated GPT-5 model last week, the company almost certainly didn’t anticipate the public reaction, which ranged from ambivalence to downright hostility—a rare setback for showman impresario C.E.O. Sam Altman. Over the past few days, social media has been inundated with viral posts chronicling the unfortunate screw-ups of Altman’s self-described, pocket-sized “Ph.D.-level” intelligence system —struggling with basic math, drawing wildly inaccurate maps of the world, a persistent inability to count the number of Bs in blueberry, etcetera. A petition calling for the reinstatement of the older GPT-4o model, which was replaced with GPT-5, got more than 3,000 signatures in about a day.