Matteo Wong’s Atlantic piece on ChatGPT 5 acknowledges certain small limitations of the new version, but then pivots — I’m going to be straightforward here — to an absolutely mindless press release. Wong could not do more explicit salesmanship if he were paid by OpenAI. This echoes the non-journalism about machine learn that’s been dominating the NYT tech beat for some time. They all write like they’re trying to ingratiate themselves with our new insect overlords — which I suppose they are.

Meanwhile, Kieran Healey actually used ChatGPT 5. Read his post and draw your own conclusions. The especially interesting point here is that ChatGPT has learned to sneer at anyone who points to its obvious errors.

My conclusion is this: No legacy-media journalist writes honestly and thoughtfully about the big AI companies. Not one. You have to seek the truth elsewhere.