ChatGPT users hate GPT-5’s “overworked secretary” energy, miss their GPT-4o buddy

After months of hype and anticipation, OpenAI released its new GPT-5 model family this week. Promising massive upgrades across the board, the company is already working to roll out the new AI to everyone. Some dedicated ChatGPT users wish it would stop, though. After becoming accustomed to the vibe of the GPT-4 models, the switch to GPT-5 doesn't feel right. Around the Internet, chatbot fans are lamenting the loss of the digital "friends" they've grown to appreciate, which probably says a lot about how the human condition is shifting in the AI era.

OpenAI noted that it was not eliminating older models like GPT-4o, which is about a year old. However, these models are now limited to the developer API. For people who hopped on ChatGPT to have a conversation with their favorite AI, things are different now that GPT-5 is the default.

On the OpenAI community forums and Reddit, long-time chatters are expressing sorrow at losing access to models like GPT-4o. They explain the feeling as "mentally devastating," and "like a buddy of mine has been replaced by a customer service representative." These threads are full of people pledging to end their paid subscriptions. It's worth noting, though, that many of these posts look to us like they have been composed partially or entirely with AI. So even when long-time chat users are complaining, they're still engaged with generative artificial intelligence.

Other complaints are less about the emotional toll of losing a friend, claiming that GPT-5's outputs are too sterile and lack creativity. Workflows that were developed over the past year with GPT-4o simply don't work as well in GPT-5. Posters have labeled it an "overworked secretary" and pointed to this as the beginning of enshittification for AI. There's an OpenAI AMA scheduled to start on Reddit later today, and as you may expect, lots of questions are about the sudden loss of GPT-4o.