TL;DR for Builders & Researchers
ChatGPT 5.2 is optimized for reliability and variance reduction, not maximum creative upside.
Compared to 5.1, it trades expressive flair for:
• stronger instruction persistence
• fewer derailments in long conversations
• dynamic reasoning depth instead of always “thinking harder”
This makes 5.2 better for production workflows, specs, coding, governance, and long-running tasks, but worse for creative drafting and lyrical writing.
Test Phase
Before joining this debate, I ran a substantial, multi-hour test involving 8,100 lines of dense, intentionally confusing input and tripwire prompts, and spent a few more hours mapping the misconceptions I kept seeing online.
Full analysis: https://karozieminski.substack.com/p/openai-chatgpt-52-vs-51-reliability-what-changed-why-everyone-is-wrong
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