OpenAI on Thursday released GPT-5.5the latest artificial intelligence model, which the company calls “the smartest and most intuitive model” ever. The algorithm has enhanced capabilities in many areas, and OpenAI co-founder and CEO Greg Brockman says it brings the company one step closer to creating an OpenAI “super app.”
On a call with reporters, Brockman said the novel model represents a major advance “towards more agentic and intuitive data processing.”
“This model is a real step forward in the data processing we expect in the future, but it’s only one step and we expect to see many more in the future,” Brockman said. “It’s a faster and smarter way of thinking with fewer tokens compared to, for example, 5.4. This means there’s simply more pioneering AI available to businesses and consumers, which is part of our goal.”
Brockman also said this model was an additional step forward creating “super applications” — the program’s multi-functional Swiss Army knife — which Brockman and co-founder Sam Altman previously discussed launching. Co-founders imagine combining ChatGPT, Codex and AI Browser into one unified service that can support enterprise customers. It’s worth noting that the concept of a “super app” is this also a hot topic with Altman’s rival (and former OpenAI colleague) Elon Musk, who has said he wants to turn X into his own so-called super app.
OpenAI released its latest model only last month, with the previous ones released in December and before that in November. The company continues to introduce novel models to the market at a rapid pace. According to company employees, this trend will continue in the foreseeable future. “We see quite significant improvement in the short term, extremely significant improvement in the medium term,” said Jakub Pachocki, OpenAI’s chief scientist. “I would actually say the last two years have been surprisingly slow.”
According to OpenAI, GPT-5.5 is expected to be useful in a wide range of categories, including core enterprise areas such as agentic coding and knowledge work, but also more experimental AI applications such as mathematics and scientific research. The company also released data on Thursday showing the model’s excellent performance in a number of benchmarks. According to OpenAI, compared to its previous models and those of Google and Anthropic competitors (such as Gemini 3.1 Pro and Claude Opus 4.5), the 5.5 consistently outperforms.
OpenAI’s competition with Anthropic is always a topic of debate, and GPT-5.5 gave both companies another opportunity to compare each other. One reporter at the press conference asked if GPT 5.5. it would have capabilities similar to Mythos, a cybersecurity tool recently announced by Anthropic. (Mythos has sparked controversy in recent days for reporting unauthorized access to the program.) Mia Glaese, a member of OpenAI’s technical staff, said GPT-5.5 will have a significant impact on the company’s approach to deploying its models toward digital defense. “We have a strong and long-term strategy for our approach to cybersecurity and have refined a sustainable approach to securely deploying models,” Glaese said.
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Mark Chen, director of research at OpenAI, said GPT-5.5 is better at computing than its predecessors, and also said the model “demonstrates significant benefits in scientific and technical research workflows,” noting that the company says it can really “help experts make progress.” Chen also said it could support with drug discovery, an area that has shown increased industry interest over the past few years.
According to OpenAI, GPT 5.5 will be generally available from Thursday. The company says the model is being rolled out to Plus, Pro, Business, and Enterprise users on ChatGPT, while version 5.5 Pro is targeting Pro, Business, and Enterprise users.
