Today’s Big Story

ChatGPT Resets the AI Race

With GPT-5, OpenAI is making its strongest effort yet to hook users

OpenAI officialy released a highly anticipated new model on Thursday. It’s the latest version of ChatGPT and it's free to all users. The company said its the smartest and fastest model yet during a livestream event. CEO Sam Altman detailed the foundation model’s capabilities. “GPT-3 sort of felt to me like talking to a high school student... GPT-4 felt like you're kind of talking to a college student, GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic,” said Altman, who compared it to a “PhD level expert.”

OpenAI says GPT-5 has improved expertise across coding, math, science, writing, and healthcare. Crucially, the company also claims the new large language model has a lower hallucination rate than o3, which was an unsettling 33%. But the key takeaway, Altman said, is overall improvements in both obvious and subtle ways. “I tried going back to GPT-4, and it was quite miserable,” he said.

More than 700 million people are using ChatGPT each week. But they might still be wondering, “What does it mean for an AI chatbot to reason? Well, GPT-5 could give many people their first encounter with AI systems that attempt to work through a user’s request step-by-step before giving a final answer. That so-called “reasoning” process has become popular with AI companies because it can result in better answers on complex questions, particularly on math and coding tasks. Watching a chatbot generate a series of messages that read like an internal monologue can be alluring, but AI experts warn users not to confuse the technique with a peek into AI’s black box.

Of course, expectations are high for the new model because the San Francisco-based company has long positioned its technical advancements as a path toward AI technology that’s supposed to surpass humans at economically valuable work.

But are we dipping into scary “super intelligence” territory? Not quite yet. (And maybe that’s a good thing). Tech leaders have for years been making claims that AI is improving so fast it will soon become able to learn and perform all tasks that humans can at or better than our own ability. But GPT-5 does not perform at that level. According to the Washington Post, “Super intelligence and artificial general intelligence, or AGI, remain ill-defined concepts because human intelligence is very different from the capabilities of computers, making comparisons tricky.”

Israel Announces Plan to Retake Gaza City

The plan stops short of the full occupation that Netanyahu had discussed earlier

Israel said early Friday that it plans to take over Gaza City, in another escalation of its 22-month war with Hamas. The decision, made after a late-night meeting of top officials, drew Palestinian rejection, fueled mounting international calls to end the war and provoked worries in Israel over the fate of hostages still held by Hamas. NBC News reports that commercial satellite images showed the Israeli military building up troops and equipment near the border with Gaza that would support a possible new ground invasion of the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.

Israel’s air and ground war has already killed tens of thousands of people in Gaza, displaced most of the population, destroyed vast areas and pushed the territory toward famine. The Hill says “another major ground operation would almost certainly exacerbate the humanitarian catastrophe.” Hamas rebuffed Netanyahu’s plans in a statement and said people in Gaza would “remain defiant against occupation.”

According to the New York Times, Israel’s security cabinet also approved five principles for ending the war, including the disarming of Hamas; the return of all 50 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive; the demilitarization of Gaza; Israeli security control over the enclave; and the establishment of an alternative civilian administration there that involves neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority, the rival Western-backed body that exercises limited control in parts of the occupied West Bank.

NFL Is Cracking Down on Smelling Salts

Players can still use them … as long as they’re not provided by teams

Football players have long had a pick-me-up available on the sidelines in times of need. They’re known as smelling salts, and a single whiff of them can provide an instant jolt. But now, the NFL is trying to get them out of the game. And players aren’t exactly thrilled about it—with the union quickly pushing back—even though the league made the decision out of concern for their own well-being.

The NFL told teams this week that they’re banned from giving the pungent packets of ammonia and other chemicals to players before, during and after games. The league’s concerns included their ability to mask certain neurological symptoms, such as concussions. But ESPN says that despite the confusion, players will still be able to whiff smelling salts during games this season, “as long as they bring their own stash.”

But they’ve long been popular in sports that can leave athletes woozy after a knock to the head such as football, boxing, rugby and hockey. San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David publicly mourned the loss of smelling salts because they interpreted the memo to mean an all-out ban on using them during games. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” David told NFL host Kay Adams. “I’ve been distraught all day,” Kittle told the NFL Network. But the players can breathe easy … at least for now

A Weekend Pairing

‘Chief of War’ + a Pineapple Ginger Smash

Resetting can be helpful.