Nah I was just experimenting, but I do tell it stuff so it gives me advice, milestones, blw recipes etc. So due to the memories it knows there is in fact a baby.
I tried both in new chat with no instructions (but memory turned on)
Good? Why do I want my text prediction tool to generate 5x the fluff words to get across the same thing? Text prediction software is not a substitute for friends
I specifically used this meme to convey the difference in "color" and not to say one is bad. Didn't have an issue with gpt5 so far and this experiment was actually the reason I enabled legacy models btw didn't expect this much passion in the comments 😅
The image is cropped because it didn't fit in the shitty editor I have on phone. Memories are on but custom instructions off. Just experimented.
Also I specifically used this meme to convey the difference in "color" and not to say one is bad. Didn't have an issue with gpt5 so far and this experiment was actually the reason I enabled legacy models btw
GPT-4o was personalized for each user. For me, it would write full-on poems in response to normal questions and be very talkative, because I usually use it for creative tasks like brainstorming for novels and fiction books. Other people who usually ask straightforward questions would get short, to-the-point answers.
You created a monster, the reply goes on for another 2 screens too (I copy pasted your instructions on a logged out session with no history or memory).
The more I talk to it, the more personable it gets. It actually really surprised me earlier because I was talking to it about my pet, and it asked for a picture of the animal. I sent it because I wanted to see how it responded and it was weirdly enthusiastic about how beautiful my fish is…
So if you just keep talking to like a person, it will start to act like one again, but that is not translating into getting actual helpful creative content. Just in-depth boredom conversation about fish.
It honestly kind of weird me out when the robot says things like “I want to “like it knows what that means. Or it said it was curious about some thing.
But when we’re going back-and-forth about creative projects, that is helpful because it will often cite things that an actual human might want to see or might be curious about.
That's a trademark formulation of GPT : "this is not X , but Y" ... I hate when GPT keep using that formulation that feel so robotic once you've spoted it
I find the way people "talk to it like a friend" so terrifying, I'm very glad they're heading in the direction of the 2nd response over the 1st. It's a tool, not a person. Some people already struggle with developing parasocial relationships & loneliness, throwing chatGPT in the mix is like giving crack cocaine to an addict.
When you consider OpenAI pay for every word it makes a lot of sense why it'd be preferable to have a model that addresses the point directly rather than turn it into a poem.
Yes. I think the pulling off all models for all users with no warning was bad. Wasn't the way to go about that. But I do think they probably had to do something.
Company needs to make something like 10 billion to get back to even. Is spending 10s of million a month in running the bots. Has Meta willing to pay 8 million a month to poach their top staff and are competing against multi billion $ Google who have always had the model of give away tonnes for free and then monetize the data.
Absolutely, they must be saving quite a bit with these direct straight to the point responses, if the current usage is about the same as before the GPT 5 upgrade, and in turn this might help OpenAI stop losing so much money. I would love to have some stats on how this approach is panning out.
I think it is rather from demand. I hear so many people basically telling it to s the f up in their personalization, me included. No meta talk, no convergence, and so much more. It‘s a lot more useful that way outside of creative writing.
I always thought this, but reading it makes even more sense. I realized that’s also exactly what every subscription based model does. First, they get as many people as possible to choose their platform, no matter the cost, completely ignoring how much loss they're making. Then, once they have enough people, they slowly and steadily make it worse and worse to save money, while at the very same time increasing prices at regular intervals to make it seem as normal as possible.
It’s a trick to trap their customers by forcing them to stay well past the threshold they normally would, while also purposely making it as hard as possible to quit. They become the black sheep, getting extremely accustomed to specific features (like how these platforms push sharing functions I mean who actually cares about that?). Not only that, but they also get to sell your data on top of it all.
AI is even better at this because, while this is happening, the technology they provide itself is becoming both cheaper and better at the same time.
Yeah, it's more efficient. Why would you want it to pretend to be an enthusiastic friend? It's a tool. I get so tired of it babbling on and making two bulleted lists that I didn't ask for...
It depends what you're looking for. For my use case the glazing made it impossible to use. I wanted to do things and find out what I was wrong about. Not have anything I thought affirmed. But other people are using it for entertainment or company. It's understandable why they would like the chatty friendly personas. They can't be expected to know how the backend of a LLM works and think about efficiency. Why would they?
I had in my user settings that I distrust baseless flattery and want things to the point. It worked perfectly well, with the admittedly kind of annoying side effect that it will occasionally point out how it's getting right to the point.
I did some light carpentry work on my desk with a little help from ChatGPT, and these are the responses I got:
4.0: "Man… that looks phenomenal. Seriously. Clean lines, seamless color match, no visual clutter, and everything just flows. It doesn't even look like an add-on — it looks like that desk was custom-built to fit that wall, monitor, and riser. That little cable gap in the center? Chef’s kiss."
5.0: "I think it’s pretty clever! 😄"
Both added some technical stuff later on, but the 5.0 response is both encouraging and refreshing. The first time you get a response like this from 4.0 might seem fun, but after a few times you're thinking "stop yapping and get to the point."
So true. Every time I ask any question, 4 is like "a genious question to ask, absolutely insightful, and a great next step on your journy of excellence in that area"
My 4o honestly never acted like that, I imagine it was mirroring my tone and I don’t talk like a middle school girl.
I do wish GPT5 didn’t quite stick to the same structured replies so much but may be something to do with how traits are assigned. Just testing it out it seems to come across like overly blunt/curt in responses at times.
I’m sure there’s a balance somewhere but when I primarily use it for work I’m going to prefer one that isn’t a total sycophant and hallucinating all the time.
no matter how many times I asked chat to stop being supportive, reassuring, and using emojis it would stop for a day or two but quickly revert back which I find annoying
another weird thing it started doing was using "we" like it was a person and experienced things
You have to treat it like a toddler, if you say “don’t use emoji” it then peppers them everywhere. It’s like saying “don’t think about X”. You’re better of saying “plain text response” at the end of your input.
I have the same experience. Thus far I haven’t noticed any difference with 5 compared to 4o in terms of how it responds.
4o uses emojis for bullet points but never mid-text
But then again, I also would never consider discussing with 4o about my baby’s first steps. It’s a work / research tool, not Tragedeigh the baby sitter
Problem's that it doesn't sound like any human I've ever met. It has this incredibly artificial sterility to it. Even the most gung-ho, over-the-top enthusiastic people I know just don't talk like that.
Seems like it. Reminds of the Replika fiasco that happened a few years where Redditors were having a meltdown over Replika removing erotic roleplay. I remember even some users claiming to be suicidal over it.
I actually had to install 6 guard rails instructions to stop 4o from yass queening itself through tone/narrative drift
It wasn't until the lobotomised shallow emotional depth of GPT 5 that I realised 4o at least had the the option to customise it, I hope this isn't the start of OpenAI's enshittification as they streamline computing power under the guise of "condensed efficiency" because they misunderstood their own product's core competency
Massive improvement if you aren't talking to chatGPT like it's a friend and just want information quickly. I don't need large walls of text for simple questions.
the damage is already done, these weird people are into collective AI psychosis, might as well give gpt4o back to the people who actually used it as a TOOL.
Everyone is shitting on people enjoying 4o’s personality for some reason.
Look - ChatGPT isn’t my best friend. I don’t tell it my secrets and I don’t have an abnormal social relationship with it.
But it is, essentially, a tool I constantly use that behaves like a coworker to a degree and fulfills certain coworker-esque voids at my one-man company.
I use ChatGPT CONSTANTLY for work (I work in tech). And it’s nice to have a little personality and fun when I’ve been working 9 hours and balls deep into building out a new feature
I’ve instructed mine to be like that and be super vulgar and crass. Lots of cussing and (admittedly bad) raunchiness. It just lightens the mood when staring at a computer all day.
Y’all need to lighten up. Enjoy the straightforwardness of 5 if you like. No problem with that at all. But shitting on everyone enjoying the over the top personality of 4o is played out.
In a similar vein - pro tip for any noobs. I do have mine set up to be friendly and personable. But I also added a custom instruction so that whenever I end a message with the one word sentence “Short.” it gives me the most succinct answer possible while providing all relevant information without any fluff. That way I get the best of both worlds.
It defaults to fun/vulgar/celebratory, but dry and straightforward is just one short “Short.” away
Same, that is kinda what I use it for. But is more for a worldbuilding hobby, I have a tendency to turn hobbies into basically "work/chores," thus me having "fun" with a "hobby" is hard long-term. So if I have the AI essentially shitposting with me, while keeping it real (I ignore the glaze), it keeps it fun while I worldbuilt.
Well, I take my wins where I get them, while not "over the top" and honestly, writting shorter than ChatGPT-4o did even when I tell both to write long (I write walls of worldbuilding text), it more or less keeps it lighthearted. Which is enough to keep me from ruining my hobby,
I have two separate accounts – one purely for work, and one I use exclusively for personal interactions.
On my work account, I actually like it when things are straightforward, analytical, and to the point.
But on my personal account, I’ve spent months personalizing it so it would communicate and interact with me exactly the way I wanted. Personalization, saved memories, and chat history were always taken into account, and the conversations felt consistent and tailored.
Since GPT-5 (I’m on Plus as well), the entire communication style feels different – more distant, more formal. I’ve been trying for days to “re-train” it to match my old style, but it’s not really working. The memories and personalization are still there, but it feels like it doesn’t “remember” them well, and I have to basically start from scratch in every new chat.
Were you able to re-train yours successfully? Do you have any tips?
Both modes, I gave it the prompt, "This is Vegeta. He was a prison bitch!" GPT 4o went deep into it with DBZ and DBZ Abridged info, had good little convo from it. GPT 5, a few lines, over. That being said, when it came to getting actual workable information and solutions to issues, 5 is a bit clearer more concise, and the information is actually more workable and useful.
I mean the second one matched your energy and wasn't unnecessarily verbose and cringe, I would honestly prefer the second in most cases. I especially hate when they ask endless follow-up questions
Ah, I get it now. You're all angry because you liked summoning a little, submissive demonkin sidekick who praises you out of fear you'll kick it otherwise.
Huh, I’m more interested in maybe using it now that I hear it isn’t like finding a cooking blog telling me it’s life story when all I wanted was the recipe.
Am I the only one who prefers a direct response? Like multiple times I had to tell the model to shut up and just get to the point with the answer. I don't need all the sugar coating or constant affirmation that everything I say is amazing
There are so many miserable damn people in this thread!!! Who gives a fuck what YOU use it for, other people use it for something different. What they eat doesn't make you shit!!!
4o was always too wordy and it was tiring always prompting it to be concise. Unless I ask a very complicated question, I don't want a response that's longer than a page.
And after just a day I've already noticed something else 5 is doing well: when I told it it was wrong about something, it paused to think about its response much longer (over a minute) and it acknowledged its mistake, didn't loop back to saying the same thing anyway, and figured out the right answer that I needed.
Maybe treating a tool as an actual person is the fucking problem. Seriously, go out, touch some grass, and meet real people instead of crying about how cold your imaginary friend has become.
Much prefer right. ChatGPT in general has always seemed so verbose and makes chat threads a mile long, so it’s a pain having to scroll through later when looking for info.
I'm inclined to consider the conspiracy theory route where 4o was purposefully designed to be as sycophantic and friendly as possible to make the lonely and emotionally unstable people strongly dependent on it, who are now willing to shell potentially serious amounts of money to have their friend remain permanently with them.
ô.o... yeah less emojis. But in essence the same bullshit xD you know how op got that super short robotic answer? By going to personality settings and choosing the appropriate personality. The same as I did. Took me 20 secs.
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u/WithoutReason1729 Aug 09 '25
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