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Hi there,
You might notice something different – this week marks the start of The Prompt’s new format.
And what a week to kick things off. OpenAI released its first open-weight models since 2019, a notable shift for a company long focused on proprietary systems. Then, days later, it dropped GPT-5, which Sam Altman says offers “Ph.D.-level” expertise and makes GPT-4o feel “antiquated” by comparison.
While raw performance gains are nice, what really stands out is how GPT-5 changes the user experience. It’s a unified model, so users no longer have to pick between “reasoning” or “fast” modes. GPT-5 decides which model to use automatically, based on each user’s prompt.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman / Photo credit: Photo Agency / Shutterstock
And for the first time, a flagship OpenAI model is available to everyone from day one, including free users. This probably explains the “hiccups and capacity crunches” Altman hinted at. I’ve already hit one brief outage during testing.
“Something tells me this is going to be like a video game launch,” my editor Scott joked during the press briefing, referencing the buggy state of many modern releases.
GPT-5 isn’t the only thing happening in AI this week, though. This issue also includes a profile of Fabrica AI, which aims to be the “ChatGPT for inventing robots,” as well as a look at Genspark’s playbook in the agentic AI race. Plus, we have hot takes on vibe coding, AI in game development, and – inevitably – Elon Musk’s blunt reaction to GPT-5.
Got thoughts on this new version of our newsletter? Drop us a line at editors@techinasia.com.
Glenn Kaonang, journalist
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