In the final part of the Review Barry Phillips argues that in talking about what disappoints us about ChatGPT5 we’re missing the point.

Transcript:

Hello Humans!

My name is Barry Phillips and welcome to the weekly podcast that aims to summarise in five minutes or less an important AI development for HR.

In this third and final part of the review of ChatGPT5 we’re trying to get to what really matters here for HR.

Some people love ChatGPT5… …some are sceptical… and some aren’t sure what the fuss is about.

But if history’s any guide, big product launches rarely get a 100% warm welcome.

Even the iPad — now practically welded into everyday life — had a lukewarm debut.

Maybe people just don’t like the hassle of learning yet another new tool.

So, to recap what’s actually new in ChatGPT-5? 

Speed — It’s unbelievably fast.

Simplicity — Model choices are now streamlined. It quietly picks the right one for you.

Intelligence — As Sam Altman put it: “It’s like having people with PhD-level intelligence around you all the time to assist you.” 

But here’s the thing — if we only look at the features, we risk missing the real story.

This release is part of a chain of rapid progress — and when you add all the jumps together since ChatGPT-3.5 in November 2022… …you get something approaching a giant leap for humankind.

It’s easy to forget — back in March 2023, when ChatGPT-4 arrived — it was slower, less reliable, and could only handle 8,000 tokens of context. Today? 400,000.

It couldn’t speak or listen. No images. No editing. No document or picture analysis.

And it was already months out of date on launch.

Now? It does all of that… and more.

The “out of date” issue? Gone. Built-in browser.

Hallucinations? Still there — but far less often.

The real game-changer is accessibility: anyone with an internet connection… can use ChatGPT… for free. 

Kirby Story

When I was a boy, there was a Kirby Hoover salesman who’d knock on your door with his “super-duper” cleaning machine.

The more aggressive ones? They’d throw dust on your carpet the moment you opened the door — forcing you to let them in so they could vacuum it up.

These weren’t just vacuums. With a quick part swap, they became carpet shampooers, shoe polishers, even jewellery cleaners.

The pitch was clever: keep a mental total of what each function would cost separately. By the time you hit £800… the £300 price tag looked like a bargain — even though most vacuums back then cost under £200.

OpenAI’s doing something similar — offering a state-of-the-art machine with multiple uses.

Except here’s the twist: if that Kirby salesman had ended with, “Oh, and by the way… it’s completely free” — you’d have thought the world had gone mad. (slight chuckle)

Two things:

Upskilling at scale — The workforce now has free access to a tool that can massively boost capability, especially in knowledge-based roles.

Shadow adoption — People will use it whether they’re officially allowed to or not — particularly since, mixed reviews aside, ChatGPT-5 still outperforms its main rival, Copilot.

Outro

The bottom line? Whether you love it or loathe it, ChatGPT-5 isn’t just another software update — it’s part of a revolution already reshaping how people work.

The question isn’t whether your employees will use it… …it’s how you’ll respond when they do.

Thanks for listening — and until next week by for now