Thread

1. heaney-555 · 1786046147 · focus · HN ↗

   Giving free ChatGPT users access to reasoning (the 'Think' toggle) will have a broader impact on the world than every new paid model and coding agent combined.

   1. daemonologist · 1786048088 · focus · HN ↗

      Going from 5.5 Instant (which was noticeably bad) to 5.6 Luna is a big jump as well. OpenAI is probably the most prominent among the generaly public - an advantage in some respects but they're giving away a lot of free inference and thus have to use a pretty small model to do it.

      1. johnsmith1840 · 1786050710 · focus · HN ↗

         I really don't see how they're going to be google here. The free tier is dominated by verticle integration and the platform that people use. Long term I imagine google wins the bottom of the market and I'd be suprised if they lost.

         1. Tostino · 1786050986 · focus · HN ↗

            People tell these models everything. You don't think a pretty unethical company can figure out a way to monetize that?
         2. tokioyoyo · 1786052342 · focus · HN ↗

            Ads.

            1. stymaar · 1786052691 · focus · HN ↗

               Ads work when you can server $.01 worth of ads to a user for $.0001 of server cost. I fail to see how you can make it work when doing LLM inference which is significantly costlier than web search.

               1. tokioyoyo · 1786053000 · focus · HN ↗

                  In about 4 months, OpenAI’s fundraiser decks will leak, which will include their current ad revenue.
               2. kristofferR · 1786056022 · focus · HN ↗

                  90+% of queries are probably so common that, if a cheaper model made all the different language varients and ways of asking the question into one query, they could be cached.
               3. virgildotcodes · 1786057859 · focus · HN ↗

                  I recently saw some discussion about the CPC for personal injury lawyers being ~$200 on Google ads. Seems insane to me, but I’m totally disconnected from the advertising world. That said, depending on the conversion rates between chats and clicks, the math could be favorable for OAI.
               4. famouswaffles · 1786058326 · focus · HN ↗

                  > I fail to see how you can make it work when doing LLM inference which is significantly costlier than web search.

                  The median LLM query isn't significantly costlier than web search.

   2. gavinray · 1786050212 · focus · HN ↗

      I'm not sure people fully comprehend the trickle-down pop-culture/zeitgeist effects that LLM's are having/are going to have on humanity.

      Because everyone now outsources much of their thinking and researching to LLM's, our collective culture + brain is shaped in a cyclical manner by using them.

      It's the mechanical homogenization of culture and groupthink.

   3. thorum · 1786051442 · focus · HN ↗

      Free users have had access to reasoning for a while. o4-mini and the initial GPT-5 launch both included reasoning modes for free users.

      They took away the button a few months ago and are now putting it back.

      1. heaney-555 · 1786053090 · focus · HN ↗

         Technically yes, but the free usage equated to single-digit messages per day before the auto-downgrade. With GPT-5 it was just 1 message per day.

         Perhaps I should have said "proper access".

   4. in-silico · 1786054958 · focus · HN ↗

      Does the free tier really not have access to reasoning models?

      That would explain a lot of the terrible AI/LLM takes online.

      1. heaney-555 · 1786055780 · focus · HN ↗

         The free tier of ChatGPT is powered by GPT-5.5 Instant, a non-reasoning version of GPT 5.5.

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