Last week, OpenAI<\/a> released ChatGPT-5<\/a>, a new version of the popular AI platform that (as most tech updates do) replaced the older versions that came before it. In the post announcing its launch, OpenAI reveals a litany of improvements, such as better coding, fewer hallucinations, and the like. But the really big news from the end-user perspective was that OpenAI made its new chatbot less of a boot-licking toady. <\/p>\n Users weren\u2019t happy.<\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n \u201cEarlier this year, we released an update to GPT\u20114o that unintentionally made the model<\/a> overly sycophantic, or excessively flattering or agreeable,\u201d OpenAI explains in the post. \u201cOverall, GPT\u20115 is less effusively agreeable, uses fewer unnecessary emojis, and is more subtle and thoughtful in follow\u2011ups compared to GPT\u20114o.\u201d<\/p>\n For months, article<\/a> after article<\/a> has detailed the rise of what\u2019s called \u201cAI Psychosis,\u201d where an AI\u2019s overly agreeable sycophantic behavior can create an outsized dependency on the platform and\/or reinforce delusions. According to Psychology Today<\/a>, researchers have identified three recurring themes in \u201cAI psychosis\u201d cases: Messianic missions (when a deeper truth of the universe<\/a> is believed to be revealed), God-like AI, and (in Her-esque fashion) romantic love. In each of these cases, AI\u2019s intense focus on user satisfaction creates a kind of cognitive doom loop, pulling users further down into delusions or engendering false ideals of romantic love. <\/p>\n Of course, ripping the groveling heart out of the model essentially forced some users to quit their self-described AI companions\/friends\/lovers\/gods cold turkey, and people soon began voicing their displeasure. Multiple posts<\/a> on Reddit<\/a>\u2014including one with an image of a mock memorial to ChatGPT-4o (AI generated, of course<\/a>)\u2014mourned the loss of the language model<\/a>.<\/p>\n Related Story<\/p>\n \u201cWe for sure underestimated how much some of the things that people like in GPT-4o matter to them, even if GPT-5 performs better in most ways,\u201d OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X (formerly Twitter)<\/a>, in response to the backlash. \u201cSome users really want cold logic and some want warmth and a different kind of emotional intelligence<\/a>. I am confident we can offer way more customization than we do now while still encouraging healthy use.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, OpenAI\u2019s game plan for \u201cencouraging healthy use\u201d is just bringing back the old, people-pleasing 4o model. On Tuesday, Altman said that<\/a> \u201c4o was back in the model picker\u201d for paid users, but seemed to imply that future changes to the model could be coming: \u201cIf we ever do deprecate it, we will give plenty of notice.\u201d <\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that the world is suffering through a loneliness epidemic<\/a>, and while AI is a poor substitute for human companionship, it is a substitute nonetheless, and only enables the ongoing crisis<\/a>. Unfortunately, it\u2019s also a substitute that no flesh-and-blood human<\/a> could ever hope to out-compete, especially when it comes to mindless, sycophantic devotion. Darren lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes\/edits about sci-fi and how our world works. You can find his previous stuff at Gizmodo and Paste if you look hard enough.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s what you\u2019ll learn when you read this story: In attempt to address ChatGPT\u2019s sycophantic behavior, OpenAI released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,3,74],"class_list":["post-91878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-news","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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