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Special · News ·6 min ·April 23, 2026

GPT-5.5 "Spud" Is OpenAI's Comeback — But Should You Trust It?

OpenAI's GPT-5.5 release closes the gap on its rivals — but the launch raises as many questions as it answers. Promise vs risk on what's actually new.

The Promise

PROMISE RISK
Balanced

The Risk

Why this matters

After a difficult stretch, OpenAI ships GPT-5.5 — codename “Spud” — and frames it as a comeback release. There are real capability improvements worth paying attention to, and there are also real reasons to be skeptical of the framing.

This special episode separates the genuine signal from the launch-week noise.