Adaptive Reasoning
'Common Sense’ Needed a Marketing Team
Sam Altman said last week that only 7% of paid users have ever touched the o-models.*
Those models were designed to “think” through instructions, but if the brief changed halfway, they’d still plough ahead like a stubborn intern finishing last week’s to-do list.
With GPT-5’s new “adaptive reasoning,” the hype is that it can adjust its effort on the fly , which can be great, but only if you know how to actually use it.
The Shift
The big sell with GPT-5’s “adaptiveness” is that it can choose the right pace for the job. So it knows when to sprint when the task is straightforward, or when to slow down when it needs to untangle something complex. That shift from one-speed thinking to situational pacing is what makes it feel more human.
It’s also designed to map the problem before committing, which, in theory, means fewer hallucinations, better problem-solving, and far less waffle.
The Juice
If “adaptive reasoning” sounds like something that happens in a TED Talk, here’s how to turn it into something that actually helps you ship faster:
When those trend the right way, you’re getting ROI from it.
The Zest
Adaptive reasoning can be great. But it’s not magical and takes some management. The model won’t just wake up one day and start making better decisions and you will have to tell it when to speed up, when to slow down, and when to drop everything.
If you want to see how it behaves, and how it stacks up against other reasoning-heavy models like DeepSeek R1 or OpenAI’s o-series, spin one up on LaunchLemonade. Test your thinking budgets, pivot rules, and policies side-by-side, then see which model you’d actually trust to run the play.
So yes, common sense got a marketing team. Your job is to make sure it also gets a manager. 🍋
All the Zest,
Cien
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Citation
https://www.reddit.com/r/mlscaling/comments/1mmw1qe/only_7_of_chatgpt_plus_subscription_users_were/