OpenAI’s GPT-5 Development Has Reportedly Suffered a Data Shortage Setback

OpenAI is reportedly behind schedule with its GPT-5 development. As per the report, the AI firm has hit several roadblocks in taking the successor to GPT-4 to the desired level of capability, including training data shortage and the requirement of massive funds. The artificial intelligence (AI) model is said to be under development for more than 18 months, which is significantly higher than what the company originally planned. It also remains unclear when the large language model (LLM) might finally debut.

OpenAI's GPT-5 Development Reportedly Hits Roadblocks

The Wall Street Journal reported that the GPT-5 project, which is also codenamed Orion, is currently running behind schedule, and there is no clarity on when it might work, if at all. Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the publication claimed that the two main issues the AI firm is dealing with currently are the expenses of developing the model, and the lack of enough training data to make it intelligent enough.

According to the report, OpenAI has conducted two large training sessions for GPT-5, where each session went on for months and took massive amounts of data. However, the company reportedly faced unexpected issues each time which stopped it from getting the desired results. Notably, a six-month long training period for GPT-5 is said to cost the company around $500,000,000 (roughly Rs. 4,260 crores).

At present, GPT-5 is said to be marginally better than the existing AI models of OpenAI. However, it is reportedly not advanced enough to be lucrative to users and enterprises and cannot turn a profit given the massive cost of keeping it operational, people close to the project told the publication.

As things stand, OpenAI will likely require several more training sessions to bring the AI model up to the desired level of intelligence. However, if the company is facing a data shortage, it can further delay the model's training. This delay has reportedly not pleased OpenAI's biggest backer Microsoft. The tech giant reportedly believed that GPT-5 would be released by mid-2024, however, that has not been the case.