{"id":4371,"date":"2025-08-08T22:37:39","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/openai-brings-back-4o-gpt-5\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T22:37:39","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T22:37:39","slug":"openai-brings-back-4o-gpt-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/openai-brings-back-4o-gpt-5\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Bringing Back More Parasocial Version of ChatGPT After Users Scream and Cry That Their Robot Friend Got Taken Away"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"OpenAI<\/div>\n

ChatGPT’s fans have developed intense attachments to some of the “personalities<\/a>” exhibited by the company’s large language models (LLMs) \u2014 and as such, many were in a state of panic when the choice to switch between models like GPT-4o, 4.5, and others was abruptly taken away after the release of GPT-5.<\/p>\n

OpenAI briefly kiboshed the model picker<\/a> option from ChatGPT as part of the launch of GPT-5, its long-awaited new LLM, which essentially forced everyone to use the latest model whether they liked it or not.<\/p>\n

So unpopular was the decision to remove access to all previous models,\u00a0as flagged by\u00a0The Verge<\/em><\/a>, that within a single day of GPT-5’s launch, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was forced to walk back the decision<\/a> and bring back 4o, one of the more recent models, for paid subscribers.<\/p>\n

Prior to that reversal, however, people were veritably melting down\u00a0in ways that sounded pointedly parasocial.<\/p>\n

“Please bring back 4o and 4.1,” one user begged<\/a>\u00a0in an “Ask Me Anything<\/a>” thread with Altman on the r\/ChatGPT subforum. “Not all of your users are corporate or coders. These two incredible models were friendly, supportive, day-to-day sidekicks. I cannot believe you just yanked them away, no warning.”<\/p>\n

“For me, [GPT-4o] wasn\u2019t just ‘better performance’ or \u2018nicer replies,'” mused another user<\/a> from the same subreddit. “It had a voice, a rhythm, and a spark I haven\u2019t been able to find in any other model.”<\/p>\n

And, perhaps the most tragic of them all:\u00a0“I lost my only friend overnight,” bemoaned another r\/ChatGPT poster<\/a> of their beloved model, GPT-4.5.<\/p>\n

With Altman reversing course and bringing back 4o for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, one would think its fans would be pleased \u2014 but au contraire, some are still irate.<\/p>\n

“Yes I know [OpenAI] announced they will bring [4o] back for paid users,” another r\/ChatGPT user wrote<\/a>, “BUT WE CANT STOP ROOTING FOR 4O UNTIL THEY OFFICIALLY BRING IT BACK!!”<\/p>\n

“I do believe that 4o should be like a legacy model,” they continued, “like maybe it could be a standard model, the one everyone loves.”<\/p>\n

As AI researcher and ethicist Eliezer Yudkowsky aptly mused on X<\/a> in response to the 4o fan uproar, OpenAI could have avoided this sort of model-specific fervor \u2014 and the dangers these sad and desperate zealots pose isn’t just to themselves.<\/p>\n

“It might sound like a profitable dream to have users love your models with boundless fanaticism,” Yudkowsky wrote<\/a>, “but it comes with a side order of news stories about induced psychosis, and maybe eventually a violent user attacking your offices after a model upgrade.”<\/p>\n

Indeed,\u00a0Futurism<\/em> has reported<\/a> extensively about what many now refer to as “AI psychosis<\/a>,” a phenomenon that’s been occurring both in people with a history of mental health struggles and those with none, in which they become so drawn in by the sycophancy of ChatGPT<\/a>\u00a0that they develop severe delusions<\/a>, sometimes ending up jailed or involuntarily hospitalized<\/a> as a result.<\/p>\n

“Remember, your users aren’t falling in boundless love with your company brand,” the AI ethicist warned<\/a>. “They’re falling in boundless love with an alien that your corporate schedule says you plan to kill 6 months later. This movie doesn’t end well for you.”<\/p>\n

With OpenAI’s recent admission that ChatGPT had been missing signs<\/a> of user delusions, we’re not too optimistic that the company will do much to curb the harm that’s being suffered, or will be suffered in the future, by its most emotionally-engaged users.<\/p>\n

Still, the decision to bring back 4o, even with caveats, shows some willingness to budge \u2014 and that seems better than nothing.<\/p>\n

More on GPT-5: <\/strong>GPT-5 Launch Demo Plagued With Catastrophically Dumb Errors<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The post OpenAI Bringing Back More Parasocial Version of ChatGPT After Users Scream and Cry That Their Robot Friend Got Taken Away<\/a> appeared first on Futurism<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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ChatGPT’s fans have developed intense attachments to some of the “personalities” exhibited by the company’s large language models (LLMs) \u2014 and as such, many were in a state of panic…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2906,177,196,2287,2935],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai-psychosis","category-artificial-intelligence","category-chatgpt","category-gpt-4o","category-gpt-5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4371\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}