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“GPT-5 is the first time that it really feels like talking to an expert in any topic, like a PhD-level expert.”

Sam Altman, August 2025

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5prvgw0r1o

What of it?

For me too, it was around that time last year, with GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.5 and then Gemini 3 that I started feeling that these models are clearly becoming great at reasoning. I'm not at all opposed to saying that they are around PhD-level on at least some domains.

I think there's a lot of difference between sounding like someone and being someone. The models are excellent at pretending indeed.

exactly. this is what whole RL thing is optimizing for, even if that is not the intent.

I don't think that sama was arguing that ChatGPT actually passed a PhD thesis defense. But arguably, it could make for an interesting benchmark.

Please do not get swayed by nor defend the words vomited by a snake oil salesman.

Also what benchmark? How will you you design it?

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