It's not "genuine" when they say that every question is a "great question" and every thought is a "deep and profound observation."
As someone who actually likes to explore ideas and steal man myself on these chats, it's especially obnoxious because those types of comments do no favors in guiding you down good paths with subjects that you may be working on and learning.
Of course the average user likes getting their ego stroked. Looks like OpenAI will embrace the dopamine pumping style that pervades the digital realm.
I mean, it’s not genuine regardless of how often or little it’s said because it is, literally and by definition, artificial praise. Which is harmful in any quantity.
What happened with GPT-5 is that the product changed abruptly and significantly.
I don’t think most people are looking to use ChatGPT as a virtual friend, but overnight the product changed from having a very friendly (yes perhaps almost too friendly) personality to being terse.
If the product was always like that or it slowly evolved into that it wouldn’t be a big deal.
I really don't think this is a good idea. All the negative comments seem to have been from people who almost treated 4o as a friend rather than a tool. I don't think encouraging that direction is good in any way.
I took three 45m sessions of user training from OpenAI prior to the GPT-5 switcheroo. I know when to switch models. I know know to invoke Deep Research mode. I want my GPT-4 stuff back.
Looking at the reactions to 4o being removed on reddit was... Sobering. The reason they toned it down was because they claimed the sycophantic behavior and the attachment some were growing weren't healthy. It was pathetic to see them not stand their ground when you at the same time see people develop these super unhealthy relationship to text generators.
The alternative was likely that these people would move to platforms that actively prey on this instead. Imo it's good that they get people onto the newer model and help them bridge the way to healthier conversations. Though realistically, these people should just be using the personality tools and the default should be robotic so new people don't join the problem.
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As someone who actually likes to explore ideas and steal man myself on these chats, it's especially obnoxious because those types of comments do no favors in guiding you down good paths with subjects that you may be working on and learning.
Of course the average user likes getting their ego stroked. Looks like OpenAI will embrace the dopamine pumping style that pervades the digital realm.
My uncle for example was using it frequently some excel vbscripts and had no idea was o4 mini was or o3.
- synthetic friend
- a tool that happens to be much faster than google/ctrl-f/man-pages/poking around github
perhaps offer GPT-5-worker and GPT-5-friend?
What happened with GPT-5 is that the product changed abruptly and significantly.
I don’t think most people are looking to use ChatGPT as a virtual friend, but overnight the product changed from having a very friendly (yes perhaps almost too friendly) personality to being terse.
If the product was always like that or it slowly evolved into that it wouldn’t be a big deal.
And also the blazing fast deprecation of all other models in ChatGPT when 5 was announced.
They've redefined "flattery". And "genuine".
It has to do with an abrupt product change that was too different from the previous thing that everyone liked.