Mystery 'gpt2-chatbot' Fuels Speculation Over OpenAI's Next Gen ...
A new artificial intelligence chatbot is gaining attention on social media after mysteriously appearing on an AI benchmarking platform with capabilities that reportedly rival the best known AI systems, fueling speculation over its origin and potential links to OpenAI as enthusiasm builds for the ChatGPT maker’s next major update.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman posted a cryptic tweet seeming to reference a mystery chatbot that surfaced online. An AI chatbot, called “gpt2-chatbot,” made a low-profile appearance on a website used to compare different AI systems, LMSYS Chatbot Arena.
Matching GPT-4 Capabilities
The bot’s origins are not clear but its name references OpenAI’s GPT-2, a large language model that preceded the lab’s more advanced GPT-3 and GPT-4 systems that it uses to power tools like ChatGPT. The mystery chatbot appears to match, and potentially exceed, the capabilities of GPT-4, OpenAI’s most advanced AI system yet, according to VentureBeat, citing a variety of AI experts posting about the model on social media; OpenAI did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment on the chatbot.
It does, however, appear to fall short of what would be expected for OpenAI’s hotly anticipated model GPT-5, the outlet reported, sparking speculation it could be a potential update to its current system, GPT-4, perhaps in the form of GPT-4.5.
Speculation and Social Media Buzz
Speculation that the model is the work of OpenAI grew after the lab’s CEO and cofounder Sam Altman said “I do have a soft spot for gpt2” in a post on X, formerly Twitter. Altman’s post was later edited after posting to bring the model’s name in line with mystery chatbot’s name — an earlier version referred to the model as “gpt-2,” in fitting with OpenAI’s nomenclature — which, alongside the tweet’s timing, suggests he is talking about this new system rather than fondly remembering the past.
The term “GPT-2” is trending on X following the release of the mystery chatbot, with many users speculating as to the mystery bot’s origin and sharing thoughts on its capabilities.
Anticipation for GPT-5
OpenAI is widely expected to be gearing up for the release of its next major model, GPT-5, this summer. GPT-4 was released just over a year ago and since then companies have raced to build and deploy better models to stay relevant in the fast-moving AI space. This race is heating up ahead of GPT-5’s expected release and big players including Meta, Google, and Mistral have all released new versions of their leading systems within the past month or so, with even more updates expected over the coming months.
Altman is worth $1 billion, Forbes estimates. While best known for cofounding and leading OpenAI, Altman has no equity in the company. Instead, Altman owes his fortune and billionaire status to a series of valuable investments, including stakes in newly floated Reddit, fintech darling Stripe, and nuclear fusion venture Helion. Prior to his work at OpenAI, Altman founded social mapping company Loopt and served as partner and president at startup accelerator Y Combinator.
