This Week in AI: ChatGPT Gets an Upgrade; Expedia Embraces AI

From the release of GPT-5 to travel platform Expedia implementing artificial intelligence throughout its business to rental car companies using the tech to assess damage to rentals, here are this week’s top AI stories.

ChatGPT Gets Boost in Capabilities With GPT-5

OpenAI released its much-anticipated and most powerful model, GPT-5, Thursday (Aug. 7).

The multimodal model merges the company’s GPT series and omni (o) reasoning models into one to create a powerful reasoning model. Through the ChatGPT interface, GPT-5 can write an entire software program from scratch by just using prompts.

“We think this idea of software on demand is going to be one of the defining characteristics of the GPT-5 era,” CEO Sam Altman said Thursday during the company’s livestreamed announcement.

Other features include “significantly” better writing, voice and color customization, translation, personality changes, integration with Gmail and Google Calendar, and fewer hallucinations.

Expedia Goes All in on AI

Expedia Group is embedding AI across its business, a move that could give it a competitive edge in a crowded travel market.

“We’re using AI everywhere,” CEO Ariane Gorin said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call with analysts. “It touches every function across our company, and all our employees have AI goals.”

Expedia also said it is working with OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and Meta to ensure its brands — Expedia, Hotels.com and Vrbo — are cited by AI chatbots, since travel planning starts with search.

Additionally, Expedia is exploring the use of agentic AI to add inventory and resolve customer issues more efficiently.

Car Rental Firms Use AI to Find Dings and Dents, Bill Travelers

Hertz, which owns Dollar and Thrifty, is using AI to scan rental vehicles before and after customers drive off to find dings, dents and other damage that may not be visible to the naked eye.

The AI also automatically bills the customer if it finds any damage.

A couple told The New York Times that a Herz employee cleared their car after they returned it, only to find a $195 bill waiting for them.

Hertz told PYMNTS that it uses AI to replace manual inspections, which may not be as precise.

Sixt also adopted similar practices, while Avis, which owns Budget and Payless, has tested an AI damage-scanning system but said the process is led by human employees.

Some hotels are also using AI to spot unsanctioned behavior, like smoking or vaping, and imposing fines on travelers.

AWS Is First Cloud Provider to Offer OpenAI’s Models Outside of Microsoft

AWS, a subsidiary of Amazon, is offering OpenAI’s gpt-oss in both 120 billion and 20 billion parameter versions.

Along with GPT-5, OpenAI released its first open models this week since GPT-2 in 2019. The new gpt-oss models are open-weight models, not open source. That means users do not get the source code or know what data went into its training, which could pose risks to businesses.

As an open model, gpt-oss can be accessed by anyone by going directly to OpenAI, but they would lack the engineering and other technical support that AWS would provide.

Microsoft is OpenAI’s largest investor, has had exclusive access to the company’s models and offers them on Azure.

BofA analyst Justin Post said, “OpenAI’s open-weight models may not represent the ‘leading-edge’ models,” as their capabilities are “more similar” to a lightweight version of GPT-4. However, they “do fit well with Amazon’s cost savings strategy.”

New Peloton CEO Bets on Holistic Wellness for Company Growth

Peloton is shifting from a connected fitness company to a holistic wellness brand as part of its turnaround strategy.

CEO Peter Stern — a former Apple Fitness+ executive — said the company is expanding beyond cardio to address strength, stress management, sleep and nutrition, aiming to support “healthspan,” or quality of life.

The company plans to use AI and data from wearables to deliver personalized coaching for physical and mental wellness. New initiatives include micro stores in Nashville and Utah, with more opening soon, and a resale platform, Peloton Repowered, for buying and selling used equipment.

Peloton is also targeting new customer segments with discounted pricing for students, educators, first responders, healthcare workers and military personnel.

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