OpenAI launches GPT‑5.3 Instant amidst backlash over Pentagon agreement

OpenAI launched its new GPT-5.3 Instant model, promising more accuracy and “less cringe,” even as the company faces backlash over its agreement with the U.S. Pentagon.

The ChatGPT-maker said that the GPT-5.3 Instant model would have fewer unnecessary refusals and “preachy” disclaimers, while also delivering sharper contextualisation, better understanding of question subtext, and a more consistent response tone while chatting.

“GPT‑5.3 Instant significantly reduces unnecessary refusals, while toning down overly defensive or moralizing preambles before answering the question,” said OpenAI in a blog post about the release, adding, “GPT‑5.3 Instant also improves the quality of answers when information comes from the web. It more effectively balances what it finds online with its own knowledge and reasoning—for example, using its existing understanding to contextualize recent news rather than simply summarizing search results.”

The company further promised a reduction in hallucination with the user-feedback evaluation showing that hallucinations decreased by 22.5% with web use and by 9.6% without web access.

OpenAI’s GPT‑5.3 Instant is available to all users in ChatGPT.

However, the release comes during a challenging time for OpenAI’s reputation.

OpenAI-rival Anthropic is currently locked in a dispute with the U.S. government, as U.S. President Donald Trump ordered government agencies to phase out Claude when the company refused to change its safeguarding policy on the use of AI for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance.

“Our strong preference is to continue to serve the Department and our warfighters—with our two requested safeguards in place,” said Anthropic in a blog post on February 26.

Next, in a blog post dated February 28, OpenAI moved to announce an agreement with the U.S. Department of War for deploying advanced AI systems in classified environments. However, OpenAI and the government have presented contradicting information about what the AI can and cannot be used for, triggering user backlash over AI surveillance and autonomous weapons fears.

Anthropic’s resistance to the U.S. government’s demands has helped boost its reputation, with Anthropic’s Claude chatbot outranking ChatGPT in phone app downloads in the U.S. in the past week, according to data from the Sensor Tower firm.