Why Is GPT-5 Bombing Offline IQ Tests? A Look at the Benchmarks
Hey everyone, hope you're having a great week. So, there's been a TON of chatter online recently about GPT-5, OpenAI's shiny new model. And a lot of that chatter has been… well, not exactly flattering. You’ve probably seen the headlines & memes: "GPT-5 Bombs Offline IQ Test with a Score of 70!" or something along those lines.
Honestly, when I first saw it, I did a double-take. Could the successor to GPT-4, a model that felt like a quantum leap, really be… dumber? It sounds wild, & frankly, a little juicy. But here's the thing: when something sounds too wild to be true in the world of AI, it usually is.
Turns out, the story behind GPT-5’s supposed low IQ is a perfect example of how a little misunderstanding can explode into a full-blown internet myth. So, let's pour a cup of coffee & get into what's REALLY going on. We'll look at where these rumors came from, why they're not what they seem, & how we should actually be thinking about the intelligence of these increasingly powerful AI models.
The Great "Chart Crime" of 2025
So, where did this whole "GPT-5 has an IQ of 70" thing even come from? The answer is actually pretty funny. It all started during OpenAI's live event unveiling GPT-5.
During the presentation, the team showed a bunch of benchmark charts to illustrate how much better GPT-5 is than previous models. But one of those charts had a… let's call it a "visual inaccuracy." A bar representing a lower score was shown as being taller than a bar with a higher score. It was a classic data visualization blunder, the kind of thing that makes data nerds on the internet cringe & then immediately start making jokes.
Sam Altman himself even got in on the fun, calling it a "mega chart screwup" on X (formerly Twitter). And from that one little graphical oopsie, the memes were born. People started jokingly attributing a low IQ score to GPT-5, & like all good internet rumors, it took on a life of its own. So, no, there was no official, offline IQ test where GPT-5 sat down & bubbled in answers. The "70 score" is pure internet lore, a joke that got out of hand.
There were also some other rumors floating around about a score of 57, which also seems to have originated from the murky depths of online forums without any real evidence to back it up. A lot of the initial user experience didn't help, either. On the first day of the rollout, a lot of people were saying that GPT-5 felt "dumber" than its predecessor. Sam Altman had to jump on Reddit & explain that a "malfunctioning real-time router system" was to blame. This system was supposed to automatically decide which version of the model to use for a given prompt, & it was on the fritz. So, many users weren't even getting the full power of GPT-5.
That's the thing with cutting-edge tech; sometimes the rollout has a few bumps in the road.
So, How Smart is GPT-5, Really? Ditching IQ for Better Benchmarks
Okay, so if GPT-5 isn't being given an IQ test, how do we actually measure its intelligence? This is where things get really interesting.
OpenAI & the broader AI community have moved far beyond simplistic, human-centric tests. Instead, they use a whole suite of complex, domain-specific benchmarks to evaluate a model's capabilities. Think of it less like a single IQ score & more like a report card with grades in a bunch of different, VERY hard subjects.
Here are some of the key benchmarks OpenAI is using to show off GPT-5's new brainpower:
- Math (AIME 2025): This isn't your high school algebra test. The American Invitational Mathematics Examination (AIME) is a brutally difficult exam for high school students hoping to qualify for the International Mathematical Olympiad. GPT-5 is showing exceptional performance here, even outperforming previous models. One report even claimed it snagged a perfect 100% on AIME 2025 problems when it was allowed to use Python tools to help it "think."
- Coding (SWE-Bench & Aider Polyglot): This is a HUGE one. Can the AI write & fix complex code? SWE-Bench (Software Engineering Benchmark) tests a model's ability to resolve real-world GitHub issues. GPT-5 scored an impressive 74.9% on this benchmark. It also did incredibly well on Aider Polyglot, which measures its ability to handle complex coding tasks in multiple programming languages. Sam Altman has described GPT-5 as being like having a "PhD-level expert in anything," & in the coding world, that's a pretty bold claim that they're trying to back up with these numbers.
- Multimodal Understanding (MMMU): Modern AI isn't just about text. Multimodal models can understand & process information from images, voice, & video. The MMMU (Multi-discipline Multimodal Understanding) benchmark tests this by asking questions that require understanding a combination of text & images. GPT-5 is setting new records here, reportedly outperforming most human experts on the task.
- Health (HealthBench Hard): This is a newer, but super important, benchmark. OpenAI developed HealthBench to evaluate a model's ability to handle health-related questions in a safe & helpful way. It's based on realistic scenarios & criteria defined by physicians. GPT-5 is showing significant improvements here, acting more like an "active thought partner" than just a database of medical facts.
What all these benchmarks show is that AI evaluation has become incredibly sophisticated. We're not just asking if the AI is "smart"; we're asking how good it is at specific, high-value tasks. Is it a good mathematician? A good coder? A good medical thought partner? These are the questions that actually matter.
The Trouble with Using IQ Tests for AI
This brings us to a bigger, more philosophical question: does it even make sense to give an AI an IQ test?
Honestly, probably not. And here's why.
Human IQ tests are designed to measure a specific set of human cognitive abilities: logical reasoning, pattern recognition, spatial awareness, verbal skills, & so on. These are all wrapped up in the context of human experience, culture, & our particular way of interacting with the world.
An AI like GPT-5 doesn't have a body, it doesn't have personal experiences, & it doesn't "think" in a way that's anything like a human brain. It's a massive neural network that has been trained on a mind-boggling amount of text & data from the internet. Its "intelligence" is of a completely different kind. It's alien.
A BytePlus article put it perfectly, saying that traditional IQ measurements are becoming obsolete in the face of AI's multidimensional capabilities. For an AI, intelligence isn't about getting a specific score. It's about things like:
- Adaptability: How well can it apply its knowledge to a new, unseen problem?
- Creativity: Can it generate novel ideas & solutions?
- Contextual Understanding: Can it grasp nuance, sarcasm, & implicit meaning?
Trying to cram all of that into a single number from a test designed for humans is like trying to measure the quality of a painting with a ruler. You're using the wrong tool for the job.
What Really Matters for AI in the Real World
At the end of the day, for most of us, the benchmarks & the philosophical debates are academic. What we really care about is what this technology can do. Can it make our businesses more efficient? Can it help us be more creative? Can it make our lives easier?
And this is where the rubber meets the road. A high benchmark score is great, but it's useless if the AI can't perform a real-world task reliably. This is especially true for businesses looking to leverage AI. You don't need an AI with a supposed "PhD-level" intelligence in quantum physics if your goal is to answer customer questions about shipping times.
What you actually need is an AI that's reliable, accurate, & trained specifically on your business.
This is where platforms like Arsturn come into play. Here's the thing, most businesses don't need a general-purpose AI that can write a sonnet one minute & debug a kernel the next. They need specialized AI that can handle their specific needs. Arsturn lets businesses do exactly that. It’s a no-code platform that allows you to build custom AI chatbots trained on your own data.
This means you can create an AI assistant that knows your product catalog inside & out, can answer frequently asked questions instantly, & can engage with website visitors 24/7. It's not about passing some abstract benchmark; it's about providing real value. It’s about generating leads while you sleep & making sure your customers feel heard at any hour of the day.
This is the kind of practical AI that's making a real difference. While the tech giants are chasing ever-higher benchmark scores, the real revolution is happening in how businesses are using this technology to build meaningful connections with their audience. With a tool like Arsturn, you can build a conversational AI platform that boosts conversions & provides personalized customer experiences, without needing a team of AI researchers to do it.
The Future of AI is Specialized, Not Just "Smart"
So, to wrap things up, the rumor that GPT-5 is "bombing" offline IQ tests is just that—a rumor. It was born from a funny chart error & fueled by the internet's love for a good meme.
The reality is that GPT-5 is a seriously powerful model that's pushing the boundaries of what AI can do, as shown by its performance on a whole new generation of sophisticated benchmarks. But perhaps more importantly, this whole episode is a great reminder that we need to think differently about AI intelligence. It's not a single score. It's a complex, multifaceted set of capabilities.
And as this technology continues to evolve, the most impactful applications might not come from the model with the absolute highest "IQ," but from specialized AIs that are perfectly tailored to solve a specific problem. Whether it's helping a customer, writing code for a specific project, or helping a doctor diagnose an illness, the future of AI is likely to be a collection of expert systems, not one single all-knowing brain. Pretty cool, right?
Hope this was helpful & cleared up some of the confusion! Let me know what you think in the comments.