· 3 min read
illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on CNBC or enjoy below:
🗞️ Driving the news: OpenAI has launched GPT-5, its most advanced AI model to date, making it available to all ChatGPT users, including those on the free tier
• The model is faster, more capable, and less prone to generating false information than previous versions, with significant improvements in reasoning, coding, and domain-specific applications like healthcare
• OpenAI (see sustainability performance) says GPT-5 has undergone 5,000 hours of safety testing and can now provide “safe completions” rather than outright refusing risky queries
🔭 The context: Since debuting ChatGPT in 2022, OpenAI has become a central player in the AI industry, amassing nearly 700 million weekly active users and driving rapid advances in generative AI
• GPT-5’s release comes amid investor interest valuing OpenAI at around $500 billion, ongoing deep integration with Microsoft products, and growing competition from tech giants and open-source AI initiatives
• The update also marks the first time free users can access a reasoning model — technology that conducts internal “chain-of-thought” processing before delivering responses.
🌍 Why it matters for the planet: While GPT-5’s core focus is not environmental, advanced AI systems are increasingly integral to accelerating sustainability solutions — optimising renewable energy grids, enabling faster climate research, and automating complex data analysis in environmental policy and conservation
• Greater access to high-level AI reasoning could help scale climate-tech innovations globally, though the energy intensity of training and running large models remains a sustainability concern
⏭️ What's next: GPT-5 is rolling out to Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users immediately, with Enterprise and Education customers to follow within a week. Developers gain access to three versions — gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, and gpt-5-nano — via API for varying speed and cost needs
• Microsoft will integrate GPT-5 into Microsoft 365 Copilot, consumer Copilot, and Azure AI Foundry starting today
• Analysts will watch adoption trends, competitive responses from Google DeepMind and Anthropic, and whether GPT-5 delivers measurable productivity gains in enterprise and research sectors
💬 One quote: “The model is able to retain way more of the information that it’s looking at, and then use a much higher level of reasoning and logic capabilities to be able to make decisions,” said Aaron Levie, CEO of Box
📈 One stat: OpenAI expects to hit 700 million weekly active users on ChatGPT this week — a record for the platform
See on illuminem's Data Hub™ the sustainability performance of OpenAI and its peers Google, and Anthropic
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