GPT-5’s big new feature: less lying?

Here’s the tricky part about assessing an AI system’s deception rate: if the system is really good at deceiving you, you might not notice.

This week on The Vergecast, Adi Robertson and Alex Heath join me to discuss the launch of GPT-5 and GPT-OSS… and the strange charts we saw along the way. GPT-5 is a fascinating launch for OpenAI: one where the company is promising improvements across the board without any obvious new standout feature. It seems to have a big focus on developers and coding, but it could still meaningfully change how the average user experiences ChatGPT thanks to the long-awaited deprecation of the model switcher.

Next up, we discuss the impending age gating of the internet and whether there’s any going back. The UK has begun a widespread crackdown on websites with even a hint of inappropriate content, the EU is testing an age identification app, and more and more states across the US are passing laws requiring porn websites to verify that users are over 18. This could be a massive change to the internet, and it’s been hugely disruptive already.

Finally, the Lightning Round is… back? We discuss vibe graphing, mRNA vaccines, tariff price hikes, Google’s latest loss in court, and the Instagram Maps backlash.

If you want to read more about the stories we discussed, check out the links below.