The model for OpenAI's agentic superapp has arrived, even if the superapp itself isn't here yet.

On Thursday, the ChatGPT app maker took the wraps off its latest flagship model, GPT-5.5, just seven weeks after launching GPT-5.4. The OpenAI team said the model itself and the company's agentic coding tool Codex were used to build GPT-5.5. This process of the models helping to build themselves is called recursive self-improvement (RSI) and it has long been anticipated as a moment when AI would take a dramatic leap forward.

In a press briefing on the new model on Thursday, I asked OpenAI president Greg Brockman whether GPT-5.5 would power the company's much-anticipated 'superapp,' and he confirmed it would. He also confirmed that OpenAI would continue to roll out aspects of the superapp incrementally.

When I asked him how GPT-5.5 would be a step toward the superapp, Brockman said, "We're going to be landing some new features, even today, really marching it from being this coding app to being an app that is for anyone doing work with the computer.”

Here are what The Deep View identifies as the key features of the new model, based on what we learned from OpenAI:

• Better at long-horizon tasks: That includes workflows that require planning, feedback, iterations, and tool use
• More intuitive problem-solving: It can better interpret vague tasks and decide on the next steps with less guidance (nevertheless, the most effective workflows will still have strong human intervention)
• Improved computer use: OpenAI says the model can now do "economically valuable work" across 44 occupations
• Multi-step scientific workflows: It can now generate novel mathematical insights and handle messy real-world data analysis

All of this adds up to a model that is much more optimized for agentic workflows and helping people carry out tasks. Brockman emphasized, "We are moving to a compute-powered economy."

In the press briefing, OpenAI chief research officer Mark Chen said that GPT-5.5 will allow people to "be the orchestrators, and let the model do the heavy lifting."

At the same time, OpenAI has scaled up safety to match the model's growing capabilities. VP of Research Mia Glaese said it has increased its safety protocols to match the new model by undergoing third‑party safeguard testing and red‑teaming for both cybersecurity and bioweapons risks. As a result, the model ships with a stronger set of safeguards and users will see more refusals from the model for cyber‑related misuse attempts.

Our Deeper View

One of the most impressive things about the GPT-5.5 release is that OpenAI reports zero impact on latency, even though the model has added or improved many capabilities and shot to the top of benchmarks. I'll test the latency claim to confirm, but if it's true, then it would be a clear win. One of the biggest challenges I've seen with the cutting-edge frontier models lately is that they have been getting very laggy. I'm especially thinking of Gemini 3.1 Pro and Claude 4.7 Opus. I'm also looking forward to testing GPT-5.5 in Codex to see how much it can accomplish beyond just coding and app building. The promise of the superapp is that it will transform Codex from a developer tool into a consumer app anyone can use to automate tasks and run workflows. GPT-5.5 is clearly the engine OpenAI has built for that vision. We should expect the frontend app isn't far behind. For real-time updates on the latest developments in AI, you can follow my Twitter/X account at x.com/jasonhiner.