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GPT-5 Launches with New Capabilities, Safer Reasoning, and API Access

AND: Duolingo’s AI Bet Pays Off with $1B Revenue Target Despite Backlash

TodayOnAI’s Daily Drop

  • GPT-5 Launches with New Capabilities, Safer Reasoning, and API Access

  • Duolingo’s AI Bet Pays Off with $1B Revenue Target Despite Backlash

  • xAI’s Head of Legal Exits After a Year

  • 💬 Let’s Fix This Prompt

  • 🧰 Today’s AI Toolbox Pick

📌 The TodayOnAI Brief

OPENAI

🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: OpenAI has released GPT-5, its first unified flagship model, merging the deep reasoning of its o-series with the speed of its GPT line. Positioned as a leap toward AI “agents” rather than chatbots, GPT-5 enables ChatGPT to complete complex, multi-step tasks — from coding full applications to managing schedules — while reducing hallucinations and improving safety.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

  • Unified model architecture routes queries in real time for optimal speed or depth without manual settings.

  • Expanded capabilities include coding (74.9% on SWE-bench Verified), advanced science Q&A (89.4% on GPQA Diamond), and safer health advice with a 1.6% hallucination rate on HealthBench.

  • Safety & trust upgrades reduce deception and improve discernment between malicious and benign requests.

  • User experience gains four new built-in “personalities” plus tiered access, with GPT-5 Pro available for Pro subscribers and enterprises.

  • Developer tools include gpt-5, gpt-5-mini, and gpt-5-nano API variants, starting at $1.25M/input tokens.

💡 Why This Stands Out: GPT-5 marks a shift from conversational assistants toward AI systems that can act autonomously and reliably on users’ behalf. By offering its most advanced reasoning model to free users, OpenAI signals confidence in GPT-5’s safety and utility — and raises the competitive bar for Anthropic, Google DeepMind, and xAI. The real test will be whether GPT-5’s “agentic” promise translates into meaningful productivity gains at scale.

Duolingo

🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Duolingo surpassed quarterly revenue forecasts and saw its stock jump nearly 30%, despite months of backlash over replacing contract workers with generative AI. The shift has doubled its language course offerings and pushed daily active users up 40% year-over-year, putting the company on track to top $1 billion in annual revenue.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

  • CEO Luis von Ahn declared Duolingo an “AI-first” company in April, limiting hiring and replacing contract work with automation.

  • Generative AI enabled the launch of 148 new language courses—more than doubling the catalog.

  • Revenue is projected to exceed $1B in 2025, with 40% YoY growth in daily active users, though at the low end of forecasts.

  • Social backlash over AI use prompted a softer social media tone to improve sentiment.

  • Despite criticism, TikTok engagement remains high—even as top comments often mock the AI shift.

💡 Why This Stands Out: Duolingo’s results show that aggressive AI adoption can fuel rapid product expansion and growth—even at the cost of public goodwill. The company’s pivot illustrates a growing trend: financial performance often outweighs reputational risk in tech strategy. The question is whether sustained user growth can coexist with a brand narrative still defined by controversy.

xAI

🚀 TodayOnAI Insight: Robert Keele has stepped down as xAI’s head of legal after just over a year, citing a desire to spend more time with his two young children and differences in worldview with Elon Musk. His exit comes amid a broader wave of high-profile departures across Musk-led companies.

🔍 Key Takeaways:

  • Keele joined xAI in May 2024 as its first legal chief, shortly before the startup’s $6B Series B at a $24B valuation.

  • He played a key role during xAI’s rapid expansion, including its March 2025 acquisition of X, which Musk valued at $80B.

  • Incoming legal head Lily Lim is a former NASA rocket scientist turned privacy and IP specialist, who joined xAI in late 2024.

  • Musk’s companies are known for long-hour expectations; recent departures include X CEO Linda Yaccarino and multiple Tesla executives.

  • Keele’s career includes senior legal roles at Elroy Air, Airbus’s Silicon Valley hub, and his own short-lived legal venture.

💡 Why This Stands Out: Keele’s departure underscores the cultural and personal trade-offs facing executives at high-intensity tech firms — especially those led by Musk, where relentless pace often collides with work-life priorities. As AI companies scale at breakneck speed, will the industry normalize this “always-on” culture, or face a leadership retention problem?

💬 Let’s Fix This Prompt

 See how a simple prompt upgrade can unlock better AI output.

🔹 The Original Prompt

"Generate blog ideas for a tech company."

At first glance, this prompt might seem okay. But it's too broad — and that limits the quality of AI-generated results. Let’s improve it using prompt engineering best practices.

The Improved Prompt

Generate a list of unique, engaging blog post ideas for a B2B tech company that wants to attract decision-makers in mid-sized companies. Focus on topics related to emerging technology trends, industry insights, and practical solutions their software offers. Include suggested titles and a 1–2 sentence summary for each idea.

💡 Why It's Better

  • Specific audience: Targets decision-makers in mid-sized companies.

  • Contextual focus: Emphasizes emerging tech and practical solutions.

  • Actionable output: Requests summaries and titles to spark execution.

  • Tone and style: Guides the type of content (insightful, engaging, relevant).

🛠️ Learn how to adapt this prompt for SaaS, AI tools, dev teams & more →
Read the full PromptPilot breakdown

💡 Bonus Tool: Want to generate and master prompts instantly?
👉 Try PromptPilot by TodayOnAI (Free to use)

🧠 Smart Picks

📰 More from the AI World

🧰 Today’s AI Toolbox Pick

  • 🍋LemonSqueezy (Finance Tool): Handles the tax compliance burden so you can focus on more revenue with less headache.

  • 💻ZipWP (Web Design Tool): Creates stunning websites in seconds.

  • ⚙️DupDub (Content Tool): An all-in-one content creation platform that allows you to craft your content effortlessly and streamline your workflow.