OpenAI strikes back in the chatbot race against Google

MW OpenAI strikes back in the chatbot race against Google

By Britney Nguyen

A new version of ChatGPT, based on GPT-5.2, comes as Google has stepped up its game with its rival Gemini offering

OpenAI, led by Sam Altman, released GPT-5.2 on Thursday.

OpenAI just unveiled what it's calling its "most capable model" yet for professional work. The move comes only weeks after Google won praise for its Gemini 3 model, raising questions about who will win the chatbot wars.

The new model, called GPT-5.2, has improved from previous models in building spreadsheets and presentations, coding, "perceiving images," processing longer contexts and "handling complex, multi-step projects," OpenAI said.

The GPT-5.2 announcement follows Alphabet's $(GOOG)$ $(GOOGL)$ Gemini 3 launch in mid-November. Google said at the time that Gemini 3 outperformed GPT-5.1 and Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4.5 on key metrics such as complex academic reasoning and understanding screen and video.

Google is perceived to be gaining ground in the AI race, which has had ripple effects across the market.

Usage of Gemini is still below that of ChatGPT, but reports from The Information and Sensor Tower found that Google's model is gaining market share fast. Gemini's monthly active users grew by more than 30% between August and November, while ChatGPT saw a 5% increase during that time, according to the data.

See more: Gemini deals ChatGPT a fresh blow as Google's AI momentum builds

Within the semiconductor sector, investors have wondered if Google's custom chips would cut into Nvidia's (NVDA) market dominance. And Wall Street has generally been paying more attention to whether the massive budgets that companies are dedicating to AI will deliver commensurate returns. In recent months, OpenAI has made deals worth more than $1.4 trillion altogether to build out AI infrastructure to support its models.

With so many companies linked to OpenAI, there's a lot riding on whether the ChatGPT creator continues growing adoption of its chatbot and improves the economics of its service.

On OpenAI's GDPval benchmark, which measures how its models perform on real-world tasks spanning 44 occupations in the top nine industries that contribute to U.S. gross domestic product, the company said GPT5.2 outperformed "industry professionals at well-specified knowledge tasks" in those occupations.

GPT-5.2 Instant, Thinking and Pro will roll out in ChatGPT starting on Thursday beginning with paid subscribers, OpenAI said. Developers can also access the model on Thursday through OpenAI's application programming interface.

Don't miss: As ChatGPT turns 3, here's what's crashing the party

-Britney Nguyen

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December 11, 2025 15:23 ET (20:23 GMT)

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