We Tested GPT 5.6 Sol Early

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First Impressions: What 5.6 Feels Like to Use

At 8:10 · chapter starts 7:00

Theo and Ben dig into their actual day-to-day experience with 5.6, and the clearest signal emerges not from the model itself but from the regression to 5.5. Theo describes the single most noticeable change: 5.6 doesn't stop after the first part of a task and ask for permission to continue ^{[1] — Theo "5.5→5.6 regression: 1/5th completion: When forced back to GPT-5.5 during testing, tasks that 5.6 happily ran to completion got only about a…" 08:10 Play} . That habit was one of his biggest frustrations with 5.5, and with 5.6, it simply vanished. When forced back to 5.5 during testing windows, similar tasks got only about a fifth of the way through before stopping — a stark regression. Ben adds a philosophical point: the best AI is the one you don't notice ^{[2] — Ben "I notice Phi-5 more than I notice the new model, which is huge. Like, that's what you want AI to do. If you notice it, it's bad." 09:20 Play} . He'd previously thought 5.5 was so good that future model improvements would be imperceptible — he was entirely wrong. The hosts also flag the deeper cognitive dynamic: spending time with a better model raises your expectations, which then makes the older model feel far worse than it ever did before.

Technology

Going Back to 5.5 Made It Worse Than Ever

We Tested GPT 5.6 Sol Early · Jul 9, 2026 Technology

Once Theo and Ben spent time with GPT-5.6, returning to 5.5 wasn't just annoying — it was actively painful. Their mental bar for what an AI should do had been reset by the new model, so 5.5's tendency to stop mid-task and ask for permission felt far worse than it ever had before.

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I notice Phi-5 more than I notice the new model, which is huge. Like, that's what you want AI to do. If you notice it, it's bad.

Ben

We Tested GPT 5.6 Sol Early

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