[napier]

They almost certainly were. But the API only offers two default choices of GPT-4 (unless one has been anointed with exalted 32k access):

1. gpt-4-default which has been progressively nerfed with continuous no notification zero changelog zero transparency updates .

2. gpt-4-0314 which is a frozen checkpoint from shortly after public launch and is still great but not quite as good as the very original, or as flexible as the fridged based model. Fine. However it’s currently due to “no longer be supported” i.e. retired on June 14th.

It’s kind of a challenge to commit to building on murky quicksand foundations of an API product that changes drastically (but ineffably for the worse) without warning like the default accessible version does, and soon it looks like there won’t be a stable un-lobotomized alternative.

[com2kid]

The latest GPT 3.5 model has actually been getting better at creative writing tasks on a regular basis, which is actually bad for certain tasks due to the token limit. Whereas before GPT 3.5 could write a short story and finish it up nicely in a single response, now days it is more descriptive (good!) and thus runs out of tokens before concluding (bad!)