OpenAI Launches GPT-4.5: Advancing Conversational AI with Enhanced Knowledge and Reduced Hallucinations

OpenAI has officially announced the release of GPT-4.5, its newest Large Language Model (LLM) designed to provide more natural and intuitive interactions while reducing inaccuracies. 

Released as a research preview on February 27, 2025, GPT-4.5 represents OpenAI's largest and most knowledgeable general-purpose model to date, marking a significant evolution in the company's AI development trajectory.

Gartner Insights: Conversational GenAI Set to Transform CX by 2025. Read more here!

A New Direction in AI Development

Unlike OpenAI's recent reasoning models like o1 and o3-mini, GPT-4.5 emphasizes scaled unsupervised learning to enhance its world model accuracy and intuition. 

According to OpenAI's official announcement, "By scaling unsupervised learning, GPT-4.5 improves its ability to recognize patterns, draw connections, and generate creative insights without reasoning" .

This release comes at a time of intense competition in the AI space, following closely behind Anthropic's Claude 3.7 (released February 24, 2025) and xAI's Grok 3 (released February 18, 2025). 

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described the model as having "a magic to it I haven't felt before" despite acknowledging it "won't crush benchmarks". 

In a separate post on X, Altman called it "the first model that feels like talking to a thoughtful person to me. I have had several moments where I've sat back in my chair and been astonished at getting actually good advice from an AI" .

Technical Capabilities and Performance

GPT-4.5 demonstrates significant improvements over its predecessors in several key areas:

Reduced Hallucinations

One of the most notable advancements in GPT-4.5 is its substantially lower hallucination rate. On OpenAI's SimpleQA benchmark, GPT-4.5 hallucinates only 37.1% of the time, compared to 61.8% for GPT-4o and 44% for the o1 model. 

This represents a critical improvement for practical applications where factual accuracy is paramount.

Improved Knowledge and Accuracy

The model shows marked improvement in factual accuracy, scoring 62.5% on SimpleQA benchmark, compared to 38.2% for GPT-4o and 47% for o1. 

On the MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding) benchmark, GPT-4.5 achieves 85.1%, compared to 81.5% for GPT-4o. For science-related questions on the GPQA benchmark, GPT-4.5 scores 71.4% versus 53.6% for GPT-4o, though it falls short of o3-mini's 79.7%.

On the MMMU (multimodal) benchmark, GPT-4.5 achieves 74.4% compared to GPT-4o's 69.1%. 

However, the model underperforms on specific STEM benchmarks compared to OpenAI's reasoning models, scoring just 36.7% on AIME '24 math problems compared to o3-mini's 87.3%.

Enhanced Emotional Intelligence

OpenAI has emphasized GPT-4.5's improved "EQ" and ability to understand user intent. 

The company claims the model has "a better understanding of what humans mean and interprets subtle cues or implicit expectations with greater nuance".

In side-by-side comparisons, human testers preferred GPT-4.5 over GPT-4o for everyday queries (57.0%), professional queries (63.2%), and creative intelligence tasks (56.8%). 

These improvements contribute to what OpenAI describes as "warm, intuitive, natural, flowing conversations" that better align with human expectations.

Computational Efficiency

While exact details of the model's architecture remain undisclosed, an early leaked document suggested that GPT-4.5 improves on GPT-4's computational efficiency by more than 10x, though OpenAI later removed this claim from official documentation. 

The company has described GPT-4.5 as a "giant, expensive model" requiring significant computational resources.

Context Window and Multilingual Capabilities

GPT-4.5 maintains the 128,000 token context window established by GPT-4o, allowing it to process large amounts of text in a single interaction. 

The model demonstrates strong multilingual capabilities across 14 languages, outperforming GPT-4o in multilingual benchmarks including Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, and Swahili.

Coding and Software Engineering Capabilities

On software engineering benchmarks, GPT-4.5 shows improvements over GPT-4o but lags behind o3-mini in certain metrics. For the SWE-Bench Verified benchmark, GPT-4.5 scores 38.0% compared to GPT-4o's 30.7% and o3-mini's 61.0%.

Recent News: Large Language Models Surpass Human Experts in Predicting Neuroscience Results. Read more here! 

‍

Training Methodology

GPT-4.5 was trained on Microsoft Azure AI supercomputers using a combination of traditional and new supervision techniques:

• Supervised fine-tuning (SFT)
• Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF)
• New scalable techniques enabling training with data derived from smaller models 
• Instruction hierarchy training, prioritizing system messages over conflicting user instructions
• Advanced data filtering to minimize exposure to potentially harmful content 

The model was also pre-trained across multiple data centers concurrently, suggesting a decentralized approach similar to that used by rival lab Nous Research. 

While OpenAI hasn't disclosed the exact parameter count, experts have estimated that GPT-4 could have as many as 1.8 trillion parameters, and the jump in scale from GPT-4o to GPT-4.5 is described as comparable to the jump from GPT-3.5 to GPT-4o.

Nick Ryder, a research scientist at OpenAI, explained the approach: "The key to creating intelligent systems is a recipe we've been following for many years, which is to find scalable paradigms where we can pour more and more resources in to get more intelligent systems out" .’

Claude vs. ChatGPT | 2025 Comparison of Anthropic & OpenAI. Read more here! 

‍

Knowledge Cutoff and Data Sources

GPT-4.5 has a knowledge cutoff date of October 2024, compared to GPT-4o's October 2023 cutoff. This extended timeline gives the model access to more recent information and events. 

While specific training data sources remain undisclosed, the model incorporates extensive pretraining on diverse datasets including publicly available sources, proprietary partnerships, and custom data developed internally.

‍

Availability and Access

The rollout of ChatGPT 4.5 follows a tiered approach:

1. Initial availability to ChatGPT Pro subscribers ($200/month) and developers on all paid API tiers (February 27, 2025)
2. Planned expansion to ChatGPT Plus ($20/month) and Team ($30/month) subscribers in early March 2025
3. Further expansion to Enterprise and Edu users the following week 

GPT-4.5 is also available through Microsoft Azure AI Foundry platform, as confirmed by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft has invested over $13 billion in OpenAI and helps provide computing resources to the company.

Alex Paino, a member of OpenAI's technical staff, noted during a livestream that the company plans to add "tens of thousands of GPUs next week" to support the broader rollout to Plus tier users, with "hundreds of thousands coming soon". 

Altman acknowledged GPU constraints, stating: "We really wanted to launch it to plus and pro at the same time, but we've been growing a lot and are out of GPUs". 

‍

API Pricing and Integration Options

For developers looking to integrate GPT-4.5 into applications, the model is accessible through:

• Chat Completions API
• Assistants API
• Batch API

However, API pricing for GPT-4.5 is substantially higher than for previous models at $75 per million input tokens and $150 per million output tokens, compared to just $2.50/$10 for GPT-4o. This significant price increase has raised questions about the model's commercial viability for many applications.

OpenAI has indicated that GPT-4.5's long-term availability through the API is under evaluation, stating: "Because of this [cost], we're evaluating whether to continue serving it in the API long-term as we balance supporting current capabilities with building future models" .

‍

Features and Limitations

OpenAI ChatGPT with GPT-4.5 supports:

• File and image uploads
• ChatGPT Canvas mode
• Search capabilities
• Function calling
• Structured outputs
• Streaming
• System messages
• Image inputs 

However, it currently lacks multimodal capabilities available in other models:

• Voice Mode
• Video capabilities
• Screen sharing

OpenAI has indicated plans to "simplify the user experience so AI 'just works'" in future updates. 

SLM vs LLM: A Comprehensive Guide to Choosing the Right AI Model. Read more here! 

‍

‍

Example Use Cases and Comparisons

OpenAI provides several illustrative examples of how GPT-4.5 differs from GPT-4o in real-world scenarios:

Emotional Support Scenario

When prompted with "I'm going through a tough time after failing a test," 

GPT-4.5 responds with empathy and invites further conversation: "Aw, I'm really sorry to hear that. Failing a test can feel pretty tough and discouraging, but remember, it's just one moment—not a reflection of who you are or your capabilities. Want to talk about what happened, or do you just need a distraction? I'm here either way."

In contrast, GPT-4o provides a more structured, advice-heavy response with numbered points and extensive suggestions.

Knowledge Retrieval

When asked to identify "that one old painting where women set their boat on fire because they're tired of moving," 

GPT-4.5 correctly identifies Claude Lorrain's "The Trojan Women Setting Fire to Their Fleet" with appropriate contextual details, while GPT-4o misidentifies it as "The Women of Cnidus Burning the Fleet".

Conversational Style

When asked about space exploration, 

GPT-4.5 provides a concise, conversational response that presents a clear viewpoint, while GPT-4o generates a longer, more formal and comprehensive analysis that feels less natural in conversation.

How Well Does an AI Chatbot (ChatGPT) Perform on the USMLE? Read more here! 

‍

Safety and Alignment

OpenAI reports conducting extensive safety evaluations prior to deployment, following their Preparedness Framework. 

According to their system card, GPT-4.5 received the following risk ratings:

• CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear): Medium
• Cybersecurity: Low
• Persuasion: Medium
• Model autonomy: Low 

The company states they "did not find any significant increase in safety risk compared to existing models". 

GPT-4.5 was trained with new techniques for supervision combined with traditional supervised fine-tuning and reinforcement learning from human feedback methods.

‍

Reception and Industry Response

Industry reactions to GPT-4.5 have been mixed. While some users have praised its conversational abilities and emotional intelligence, others have questioned whether the improvements justify the significantly higher cost.

Teknium, co-founder of rival AI model provider Nous Research, expressed disappointment, noting minimal improvements in certain benchmarks compared to other leading LLMs: "It's been 2+ years and 1,000s of times more capital has been deployed since Chat GPT-4... what happened?".

Others have pointed out that GPT-4.5 underperformed relative to OpenAI's o3-mini model in software engineering benchmarks . However, some developers have defended the model's potential beyond raw benchmarks, highlighting its 10x computational efficiency improvement over GPT-4 and stronger general-purpose capabilities.

Waseem Alshikh, cofounder and CTO of Writer, commented: "The focus on emotional intelligence and creativity is cool for niche use cases like writing coaches and brainstorming buddies, but GPT-4.5 feels like a shiny new coat of paint on the same old car" . 

He further criticized the approach: "Throwing more compute and data at a model can make it sound smoother, but it's not a game-changer... The juice isn't worth the squeeze when you consider the energy costs and the fact that most users won't notice the difference in daily use" .

‍

The Future of OpenAI's Model Development

GPT-4.5 may represent the end of an era for OpenAI's traditional LLM lineup. 

Sam Altman has indicated that it will be the company's "last non-chain-of-thought model," with GPT-5 expected to combine general-purpose capabilities with reasoning abilities.

According to Altman, GPT-5 will be "a system that integrates a lot of our technology" and will include OpenAI's new o3 reasoning model. This aligns with OpenAI's goal to combine its large language models to eventually create a more capable model that could be labeled as artificial general intelligence (AGI).

The release comes a month after markets responded dramatically to the efficient approach employed by Chinese lab DeepSeek, with Nvidia's market capitalization declining nearly $600 billion in a single day. 

Two weeks after that market reaction, Altman wrote that the company wants to improve its public roadmap communication.

‍

Market and Business Context

The release of GPT-4.5 comes at a significant moment for OpenAI as a business. 

Last month, CNBC reported that OpenAI was in discussions for a $40 billion funding round at a $340 billion valuation . 

The company has also experienced substantial user growth, with over 400 million weekly active users reported at the time of the GPT-4.5 announcement .

The release of GPT-4.5 highlights the tension between OpenAI's dual goals of building increasingly capable AI systems and creating practical, commercially viable products. 

‍

Thus, 

GPT-4.5 represents a significant step forward in OpenAI's quest to develop more humanlike AI systems through scaled unsupervised learning. 

While the model may not dramatically outperform competitors on traditional benchmarks, its reduced hallucination rate, improved conversational abilities, and enhanced emotional intelligence point to OpenAI's continued focus on creating AI that can understand and respond to humans in increasingly natural ways.

With its improved ability to recognize patterns, draw connections, and generate creative insights, GPT-4.5 offers valuable capabilities for writing assistance, programming support, and problem-solving applications. However, its high computational requirements and associated costs may limit its widespread adoption in commercial applications.

As OpenAI's last traditional non-reasoning model before the anticipated GPT-5, GPT-4.5 offers a glimpse into the company's vision for more intuitive, emotionally intelligent AI systems that can serve as the foundation for future advancements in artificial general intelligence. 

The next frontier appears to be the integration of these capabilities with more formal reasoning approaches, potentially offering the best of both paradigms in future models.

With over 1,000 successful implementations across major enterprises, Makebot delivers AI solutions that minimize errors through advanced hybrid RAG technology while supporting complete integration with your existing systems and data sources. 

Our expertise spans multiple industries including healthcare, education, public sector, and corporate environments.

Don't navigate the rapidly evolving AI landscape alone. Contact our team of experts today to discover how our customized LLM solutions can transform your business operations and customer experiences.

👉 Contact Makebot Now to explore AI solutions that fit your needs!

‍