I reviewed Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol live - and the results surprised me

I got up early to record an Opus 5.5 review. Then Anthropic and OpenAI dropped new models on the same morning, and I decided to do something I’d never done before: take the How I AI bench live. I put GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6 Sol, Claude Opus 5.5, and more through the work I actually care about: emails, PRDs, frontend prototypes, backend work, long-running agents, SVGs, and video editing. I scored the outputs without knowing which model made them, so you get to watch me make predictions, change my mind, and reveal my own very inconsistent taste. Astra won my heart. Opus 5.5 won my week. Sol still has me split. There’s a creative result I got completely wrong, an LLM judge that disagreed with me, and a return to Barbie Bench: the 3D fashion game that keeps reminding me how far we have to go. The hands are tragic. AGI has not arrived. *What you’ll learn:* 1. How I run the How I AI bench blind, and what gets an output a bad score before I even know which model made it 2. Why Astra won my heart while Opus 5.5 might be overall strongest, especially for long-running agents and B2B frontend 3. Where Sol still wins me over on clear writing, readable PRDs, and price 4. The character SVG results that completely overturned my prediction about Anthropic 5. What happened when I asked these models to edit video, and why I think skills explain part of the disappointment 6. Why an LLM judge disagreed with my rankings, and what it was rewarding that I wasn’t *In this episode:* (00:00) LIVE setup and new model launches (01:30) What's new in Opus 5.5, Sol, and Luna (04:11) Guardrails, personality, and speed (09:00) The How I AI bench and blind evaluation process (11:31) Email and personal-productivity results (13:50) Frontend prototype vibe checks (24:10) Backend, agent personality, and long-running tasks (28:25) SVG illustration test (29:48) AI video-editing results (30:43) Predictions before the reveal (31:20) Barbie Bench: the 3D fashion-game test (34:17) Results: Astra, Sol, and Opus 5.5 (35:04) Writing clarity and creative surprises (36:51) Why the LLM judge disagreed with me (37:24) What each model is actually best for *Tools referenced:* Claude Opus 5.5: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-5 GPT-6 Sol and Luna: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-sol-and-luna/ Codex (OpenAI): https://openai.com/codex *Where to find Claire Vo:* ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo _Production and marketing by Pen Name_ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co._

Claire Vohost

Sep 22, 202638mWatch on YouTube ↗

EPISODE INFO

Released: September 22, 2026
Duration: 38m
Channel: How I AI
Watch on YouTube: ▶ Open ↗

EPISODE DESCRIPTION

I got up early to record an Opus 5.5 review. Then Anthropic and OpenAI dropped new models on the same morning, and I decided to do something I’d never done before: take the How I AI bench live. I put GPT-6 Astra, GPT-6 Sol, Claude Opus 5.5, and more through the work I actually care about: emails, PRDs, frontend prototypes, backend work, long-running agents, SVGs, and video editing. I scored the outputs without knowing which model made them, so you get to watch me make predictions, change my mind, and reveal my own very inconsistent taste. Astra won my heart. Opus 5.5 won my week. Sol still has me split. There’s a creative result I got completely wrong, an LLM judge that disagreed with me, and a return to Barbie Bench: the 3D fashion game that keeps reminding me how far we have to go. The hands are tragic. AGI has not arrived. *What you’ll learn:*
How I run the How I AI bench blind, and what gets an output a bad score before I even know which model made it
Why Astra won my heart while Opus 5.5 might be overall strongest, especially for long-running agents and B2B frontend
Where Sol still wins me over on clear writing, readable PRDs, and price
The character SVG results that completely overturned my prediction about Anthropic
What happened when I asked these models to edit video, and why I think skills explain part of the disappointment
Why an LLM judge disagreed with my rankings, and what it was rewarding that I wasn’t
*In this episode:* (00:00) LIVE setup and new model launches (01:30) What's new in Opus 5.5, Sol, and Luna (04:11) Guardrails, personality, and speed (09:00) The How I AI bench and blind evaluation process (11:31) Email and personal-productivity results (13:50) Frontend prototype vibe checks (24:10) Backend, agent personality, and long-running tasks (28:25) SVG illustration test (29:48) AI video-editing results (30:43) Predictions before the reveal (31:20) Barbie Bench: the 3D fashion-game test (34:17) Results: Astra, Sol, and Opus 5.5 (35:04) Writing clarity and creative surprises (36:51) Why the LLM judge disagreed with me (37:24) What each model is actually best for *Tools referenced:* Claude Opus 5.5: https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-5 GPT-6 Sol and Luna: https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-sol-and-luna/ Codex (OpenAI): https://openai.com/codex *Where to find Claire Vo:* ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ X: https://x.com/clairevo _Production and marketing by Pen Name_ _For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email jordan@penname.co._

SPEAKERS

Claire Vo
host
Host of “How I AI with Claire Vo,” covering AI tools, model releases, and practical workflows.

EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of How I AI, featuring Claire Vo, I reviewed Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol live - and the results surprised me explores live blind benchmark reveals Opus 5.5 consistency, Sol/Astra charm Claire Vo reviews three newly launched models—Anthropic Opus 5.5, GPT-6 Sol, and GPT-6 Luna—framing them as faster, cheaper daily drivers amid a broader price/speed efficiency race.

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