An OpenAI spokesperson tells WIRED that based on user feedback, the company has determined that Free and Go users prefer to stay with the default chat, with the option to manually select the reasoning mode if needed. OpenAI declined to specify what user signals influenced this decision. The company also said its Instant models can now take longer to answer questions, just like its reasoning models, narrowing the gap for most users.
However, a spokesperson said that ChatGPT’s paid users continue to value this router model, and the company expects the underlying technology to continue to evolve. According to sources familiar with the situation, OpenAI will likely relaunch the router model for free and for Go users once it is improved.
Scorching competition
The change comes as OpenAI seeks to strengthen ChatGPT in the face of increasing competition, particularly from Google. Last month, Altman announced a company-wide “code red” to focus resources to improve its core consumer product. While ChatGPT is a giant in the AI space, with over 800 million weekly energetic users, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar apparently told investors that the amount of time users spend on the platform has declined slightly amid recent content restrictions. Since August, OpenAI has introduced several safeguards to ChatGPT, such as having a chatbot suggest breaks to users during too long conversations and increasing the range of its classifiers block more content deemed dangerous.
Third-party data suggests that competitive pressures are increasing. According to audience tracking company LikeWeb, Google Gemini has grown significantly in recent months while ChatGPT’s growth has stalled. SureWeb’s vice president of data and DaaS product, Omri Shtayer, tells WIRED that the average duration of a visit to ChatGPT has dropped below Gemini since September.
The router model has been controversial since its premiere in August. OpenAI management was surprised by the sturdy response from users who preferred to talk to specific models. Within a week, OpenAI restored the model selector and some older AI models, while keeping the router as the default in ChatGPT in a novel mode: “Auto”.