GPT-5.2 Launch: ChatGPT's Major Upgrade This Week

OpenAI is reportedly in a state of urgency to roll out enhancements to ChatGPT, aiming to stay ahead of Google's recently launched Gemini 3 model. Recent reports indicate that Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, sent a "code red" message to employees, emphasizing the need to focus on improving ChatGPT over other projects. This push for innovation may lead to the release of a new reasoning model as early as this week. According to The Verge, the major upgrade expected this week is GPT-5.2, with December 9th being considered as a potential release date. Although GPT-5.2 appears to be ready for release this week as an initial response to Gemini 3, the exact date remains uncertain and could be delayed.

In addition, The Information reported on a project codenamed "Garlic," which is likely to be an upcoming update to ChatGPT. Garlic is believed to introduce a new architecture for the chatbot, directly competing with Gemini 3 and Claude Opus 4.5. The report suggested that Garlic might be officially launched as either GPT-5.2 or GPT-5.5, with a target release date set for early 2026.

What will GPT-5.2 bring to ChatGPT?

A few weeks ago, Google's Gemini 3 made a significant impact on the industry with its impressive performance improvements. The new model outperformed competitors in several key AI benchmarks. Shortly after, Anthropic released Claude Opus 4.5, which also achieved high marks in these tests. OpenAI had previously launched the GPT-5 models and updated ChatGPT to GPT-5.1 just before the releases of Gemini 3 and Opus 4.5. Altman's code red memo last week indicates that the advancements in these competitor models have influenced OpenAI leadership.

The Verge did not link Garlic to GPT-5.2, but it mentioned that OpenAI intended to release GPT-5.2 later in December. However, pressure from competitors led OpenAI to move up the release date to this week. If GPT-5.2 is indeed a direct response to Gemini 3, as the blog suggests, it may not necessarily represent the more substantial Garlic upgrade mentioned by The Information. It is still unclear what specific features GPT-5.2 will offer, although The Verge highlighted performance improvements that are expected to help OpenAI catch up with Google. OpenAI is focusing on "speed, reliability, and customizability" rather than introducing "flashy new features."

The Wall Street Journal’s report about Altman's code red memo mentioned similar ChatGPT improvements before The Verge reported a release date for GPT-5.2. While the report didn't use the GPT-5.2 name, it stated that a new ChatGPT reasoning model would be released this week, designed to outperform Gemini 3 in various tasks.

Regarding Garlic, the unreleased ChatGPT model is said to deliver a key innovation from OpenAI. It seems that OpenAI has managed to improve pretraining efficiency, resulting in a smaller model that possesses the same knowledge as a much larger system. This could enhance the chatbot's speed and reduce computing costs. Garlic reportedly performs exceptionally well in benchmark tests, including programming tasks.