[andix]

GPT-4o was considered harmful, because it imitated human connection too much, not because it was so "smart" or capable.

It was for sure a deliberate decision to make LLMs seem less like a human companion and more like an obedient servant in newer releases.

[andai]

Interesting. The reasoning models were super weird and robotic. They toned that down a bit in GPT-5.x, especially the later ones.

I always assumed the strange style was an artefact of the RLVR.

[andix]

I think they were extremely scared of 4o at that point, and were scared it could trigger some horrible event. Documented cases of severe psychosis because of AI started to surface at that time.

Just imagine what would've happened if a major terrorist attack was a result of someone getting mentally ill from AI, without the safety filters recognizing the danger.

The robotic tone was probably from over-correcting the sycophantic tendencies of 4o.

[the_af]

I think they've brought back a "personality" of sorts to ChatGPT 5.x. I've caught it more than once explaining something to me and saying "In my personal opinion", or "I personally enjoy <thing> the most". Which is always jarring, it doesn't "personally" or "enjoy" anything. We could be discussing videogames and it tells me which games "it personally enjoys the most". Bizarre.

[wyre]

4o was considered harmful because it never disagreed with the user, pushing them into depths of AI psychosis that lead to suicides and murders.

[andix]

Because it valued human connection over factual correctness.

LLMs lack the intelligence and emotions to realize when they have to stop being friendly and supportive, because it becomes unethical to continue being supportive.