OpenAI have just released their newest update for ChatGPT and has called it their “most capable model series yet for professional knowledge work.”
This update (GPT-5.2) comes a week after Chief Executive Sam Altman declared a “code red” at OpenAI to improve ChatGPT as the chatbot begins to face intense competition from rivals. This includes threats from Google’s latest Gemini AI model, which outperformed ChatGPT on various benchmarks. These included image recognition, expert-level knowledge, maths problems and logic puzzles.
Although ChatGPT-5.1 was only released a month ago, it was quickly overshadowed by Anthropic’s launch of Opus 4.5 and Google’s Gemini 3.0, both of which generally exceeded it. Google released a benchmark analysis following their Gemini 3.0 update, and it highlighted strengths in all ranks noted below. While ChatGPT-5.1 surpassed Opus 4.5 and Gemini 2.5 in numerous categories, Gemini 2.5 and 3 appear to be, for the most part, in the lead. See below.
A Quick Response to Rising Competition
OpenAI’s CEO of Applications, Fidji Simo, said on a Thursday call that the release of GPT-5.2 had been in the works for months and that competition should not be considered part of the reason for its “code-red” efforts. Others speculate this pressure intensified OpenAI’s process of releasing GPT-5.2.
Despite releasing shortly after rivals Anthropic and Google’s newest models, Sam Altman told CNBC that Google’s release of its Gemini 3 model had less of an impact on the company’s metrics than it originally feared.
OpenAI released a press release on the 11th of December, stating this update is the “most advanced frontier model for professional work and long-running agents”
This release showed users a benchmark analysis based on GPT-5.1 and GPT-5.2, with vast improvements in all categories.
Who’s In The Lead?
While OpenAI has over 800 million weekly users, Google is increasingly more profitable, with substantial data and financial resources available to fund AI. However, despite lacking this same cash flow, OpenAI has received substantial funding from large organisations. These include Nvidia, SoftBank Group and Microsoft. In OpenAI’s latest evaluation, they reached $500 billion, considerably more than their $157 billion last October.
Google, Amazon, and Meta are all significant funders of competitor Anthropic. This reported pressure to catch up comes shortly after Anthropic and consulting firm Accenture struck a 3-year AI deal to sell AI services to businesses, aiming to help them obtain a return on investment. This comes around a week after Accenture and OpenAI announced a new partnership to bring ChatGPT Enterprise to tens of thousands of Accenture’s employees.
Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst for Constellation Research, said GPT-5.2 was a good response to rising competition, but not enough to hinder its momentum. He said that “what OpenAI did was make it easier to create office productivity tools”, but that “Gemini is still more integrated”.
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