OpenAI's GPT-5: Building Apps, Games, and Websites in Minutes
OpenAI has launched GPT-5, a significant leap forward in AI capabilities. After extensive testing with numerous prompts, it's clear that this is one of the most intelligent models available. It excels at one-shotting complex tasks, from generating entire front-ends for applications to building simple 2D browser games with a nuanced understanding of physics.
This article will demonstrate several use cases live, allowing you to see the model's power for yourself. We'll be using the "GPT-5 thinking" version, which dedicates more processing to its responses before generating output.
Building a Twitter Clone in Under 5 Minutes
To start, let's give the model a straightforward but substantial task:
"Make a Twitter app with a modern UI, black and white, with all buttons functional in the front end. Use pretty icons for the default profile pictures."
The model generates the code at a remarkable speed. Unlike older models that struggled with long-context outputs, GPT-5 produces nearly a thousand lines of code without issue.
Once generated, a preview button appears, allowing you to interact with the app directly in the browser. The result is a visually faithful replica of Twitter.
Key Features Generated: - Functional Tweet Feed: You can post updates, and they appear in the timeline. - Interactive Icons: The profile pictures are cleverly designed icons. - Complete Navigation: The explore, notifications, messages, bookmarks, and profile sections are all present and functional, closely mimicking the real Twitter experience.
This entire front-end was created from a single prompt. But what about the backend? A simple follow-up prompt is all that's needed:
"Also make a backend for this."
The model proceeds to create a backend using Node.js and Express, providing the complete code along with instructions on how to run it locally. It even generates a full endpoint list required to wire the front-end to the new backend. In just a few minutes, a full-blown Twitter clone is ready for deployment.
Creating a Dynamic CRM with Advanced Features
Many business applications can be prototyped just as easily. Let's try a more creative and feature-rich prompt for a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool.
"Make a CRM for won and lost deals, Kanban style. Implement drag and drop, and create all sorts of shiny bells and whistles, shiny moving CSS, and card effects. When a deal is won, make confetti appear from the top."
After the code is generated, the preview reveals a polished and functional CRM.
Interactive CRM Features: - Deal Creation: A form allows you to add new deals with a name, amount, and status. - Kanban Board: Deals are displayed as cards in "In Progress," "Won," and "Lost" columns. - Drag and Drop: You can seamlessly drag deals from one column to another. - Visual Feedback: When a deal is dragged to the "Won" column, a celebratory confetti animation appears. Dragging a deal to "Lost" triggers a subtle "shake" animation.
This level of out-of-the-box functionality, achieved with just a few lines of instruction, is phenomenal.
Developing a 2D Game From Scratch
GPT-5's capabilities extend into game development. Let's see if it can create a simple 2D game.
"Make a Spider-Man web-swinging side-scroller 2D game where you can attach a web to buildings and swing, and even go over the buildings with enough momentum."
The preview opens a React canvas with a playable game.
Gameplay Mechanics: - Movement: 'A' and 'D' keys control movement. - Web-Swinging: A left-click targets and attaches a web to a building. - Reeling: The 'Shift' key reels the character in. - Momentum Physics: With enough momentum, you can swing completely over buildings.
The game is surprisingly fun and playable, with a background of stars and basic rectangular buildings. The physics for swinging and momentum are well-implemented.
We can even iterate on the design by asking for a feature to add custom sprites.
"Can you allow me to put up a custom sprite, please?"
The model updates the code to include a file upload option. However, what if the sprite has a background?
"Can you automatically remove the background of the sprite? I have a sprite with a background."
The model handles this request flawlessly. During the process, it encountered a minor bug, reported it, and performed a self-healing fix by regenerating the code. After uploading a Spider-Man image, the game now features the custom sprite with the background automatically removed and feathered. The experience is reminiscent of classic 2D Spider-Man games from over a decade ago, now created in minutes.
AI-Powered Writing and Creative Thinking
Beyond code, GPT-5 shows a remarkable talent for writing and generating novel ideas. When provided with samples of a writing style and asked to produce an essay on a specific topic, it can generate insightful and structured content.
Here is an excerpt from an essay it generated on the topic of "intelligence is adaptability, not skill maxing":
Intelligence = Adaptability, Not Skill Maxing
Skills have a half-life. Intelligence is your reload speed.
Skill maxing assumes the game stays still, but the rules keep patching. Markets shift, tools upgrade, incentives flip, teams reorganize, models get smarter. The person who wins isn't the one with the fattest skill checklist. It's the one who reconfigures faster when reality changes.
The frame shift: - Skill is optimizing for a snapshot. Become the best at X. - Adaptability optimizes for a stream. Detect the change, update the map, swap the tools, keep shipping.
In other words, masters focus on reception, not transmission. What's actually happening out there? What does this new context demand from me now?
The Three Loops of Adaptable Intelligence
It may not be 100% right, but it is pretty creative in how it is thinking about problems.
The model's strength lies in its ability to create powerful analogies, connecting concepts from disparate fields to generate new ways of thinking.
The Future of Software Development
The arrival of GPT-5 signals a fundamental shift. The ability to one-shot code and automate complex development tasks means that the value of rote coding is diminishing. The real intelligence now lies in adaptability—the ability to recognize when the landscape is changing and pivot to new tools and paradigms.
The era where a good product would sell itself is ending. Distribution matters more than ever, and with software creation becoming this accessible, the focus will shift to getting products in front of users.
Deep Research Capabilities
Finally, GPT-5 includes a powerful "deep research" mode that excels at finding and synthesizing hard-to-find information from across the internet, including niche forums and obscure sources.
When asked to research "the top 20 philosophical insights that every single book generally agrees on," it produced a thoughtful and well-structured list.
Sample Insights: 1. The Ethic of Reciprocity (The Golden Rule): It traced this concept from Confucius to Jesus to modern philosophers, showing its universality. 2. Impermanence and Constant Change: It highlighted that change is the only constant, a theme central to this article. 3. Self-Knowledge ("Know Thyself"): A core tenet of wisdom traditions worldwide. 4. The Unity of Existence: It connected concepts like the unity of Atman and Brahman in Indian Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and the oneness with the Tao in Taoism, demonstrating impressive cross-domain integration.
This tool is particularly effective for finding numerical data, such as the cost of starting a business in a specific city or owning a particular asset.
The technology is here. Whether you like it or not, it's better to use it and gain an advantage than to be left behind.
