OpenAI’s new GPT-5.1 time spent on tasks

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Welcome back to The Pulse, where we dive into interesting AI stories and trends backed by data, all presented through simple visuals.

> released with aim of making ChatGPT more usable

> 5.1 instant: warmer + conversational, better at instruction following & can now decide when to think on its own

> OpenAI also claims higher scores on Codeforces & AIME 2025

> 5.1 thinking: ascertains thinking time based on question (quick for easy, more thinking for hard)

> both models to feel smarter & more natural + overall as safe as GPT-5

> will be available to all within few days; API later this week

> ~$5T total spend on AI infra thru 2030 across all capital markets + pvt credit + govt support

> 122GW data center capacity planned 2026-30, but power bottleneck hinder more growth

> 2026 needs $700B (manageable), but 2030 to require $1.4T

> $650B annual revenue needed forever for 10% return = $35/mo per iPhone user or $180/mo per Netflix subscriber

> JPMorgan's fear: repeating telecom fiber buildout where revenue never materialized to justify investment

> even with AI success, "spectacular losers" guaranteed in winner-takes-all bubble pop

> AI writes 41% of all code; huge demand for tooling + quality control as code cloning spikes 4×

> 2025 Stack Overflow survey also shows 51% of professional devs use AI tools daily as demand rises

> AI agents also projected to handle 80% of customer service by 2029

> $200M Pentagon contracts to major labs + global military race → rapid R&D hiring

> while text-to-video at 75%, Artificial Analysis report shows orgs adopting image (57%) more over video (32%)

> layoffs increase, but AI restructuring also heavily underway in select markets