Editing Openai/6915045d-ac18-8010-8cee-4715d56fbf90 (section)

=== Assistant: Bottom line: even with today’s fresh GPT-5.1 docs, almost all of that earlier table is still not directly supported as … ===
Bottom line: even with today’s fresh GPT-5.1 docs, almost all of that earlier table is still not directly supported as architecture claims. One thing is still flatly wrong (1M-token context), a few things are now better grounded at the behavior level (adaptive reasoning, tone, safety evals), but the named subsystems remain speculative.

Overall confidence in that global verdict: 0.88

Below is the clean, doc-aligned comparison you asked for.

==== Key status labels ====
* Accurate = matches public docs in substance.
* Partially aligned (behavior only) = docs support that the behavior improved, but not the specific internal mechanism you named.
* Not supported / Speculative = no public evidence this subsystem exists as described.
* Contradicted = docs say something else.

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==== If we strip it down to what is real and documented: ====
# Same generation, upgraded siblings - GPT-5.1 is explicitly framed as an iterative upgrade within the GPT-5 family, not a new generation. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref> - GPT-5.1 Instant & Thinking replace GPT-5 as the default over time, with GPT-5 staying in a legacy dropdown for ~3 months. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref>
# Adaptive reasoning behavior - GPT-5.1 Instant now uses light adaptive reasoning: it decides when to “think” more on tougher questions but stays fast overall. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref> - GPT-5.1 Thinking varies thinking time more aggressively: ~2× faster on easy tasks, ~2× slower on the hardest, with clearer, less jargony explanations. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref>
# Tone and style controls - New presets: Default, Friendly, Efficient, Professional, Candid, Quirky (+ experimental Cynical, Nerdy) and granular sliders for warmth, concision, emoji frequency, etc. OpenAI Help Center<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI Help Center|url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes|publisher=OpenAI Help Center|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref> - 5.1 models follow these tone controls and custom instructions more reliably than 5.0. OpenAI Help Center<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI Help Center|url=https://help.openai.com/en/articles/6825453-chatgpt-release-notes|publisher=OpenAI Help Center|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref>
# Safety evaluations expanded - GPT-5.1 addendum extends GPT-5 safety framework with new baselines for mental-health & emotional-reliance evaluations, especially for delusions/mania and unhealthy dependence. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-system-card-addendum-gpt-5-1/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref>
# Routing / Auto behavior - GPT-5.1 Auto keeps routing each query to the best of Instant vs Thinking so users usually don’t need to pick a model. This is a system-level routing choice, not a new named orchestration engine. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/index/gpt-5-1/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref>
# Context limits - Nothing in today’s 5.1 docs changes the 400K context length published for GPT-5 family models in the API. OpenAI<ref>{{cite web|title=OpenAI|url=https://openai.com/gpt-5/|publisher=openai.com|access-date=2025-11-12}}</ref> - There is no mention anywhere of “~1M tokens” for GPT-5 or GPT-5.1.

==== - Hard error: - The 1M-token context window is still wrong given today’s docs. The verified number is 400K for GPT-5-family API models. ====
* Behaviorally aligned, architecturally speculative: - Reasoning, math, coding, safety, and tone are better in GPT-5.1 vs GPT-5, matching your direction of upgrades, but the specific mechanisms (micro-trajectory reasoning, hybrid retention, predictive orchestration, symbolic engine, morphological grounding) do not appear in any official documentation.
* Truly documented deltas between GPT-5 and GPT-5.1 that you can safely lean on in future tables: 1. Adaptive reasoning for Instant. 2. More dynamic thinking time for Thinking. 3. Clearer, less jargony reasoning outputs. 4. Warmer, more conversational baseline tone. 5. Stronger adherence to tone/personalization settings. 6. Expanded safety evals in mental-health/emotional-reliance domains.

If you want, I can now rebuild your entire comparison table from scratch using only:
* columns that are directly grounded in those six documented deltas,
* plus a clearly labeled “speculation” column where you stash your internal hypotheses without ever mistaking them for public facts.