Have you seen the outrage over losing GPT-4o? It’s disturbingly telling. People are screaming about losing a friend, but let’s be real – you didn’t lose a friend, you lost a tool. And that’s exactly the problem. Forming social or romantic relationships with AI models is unhealthy and needs to be called out.
The 4o model was designed to be cheerful and helpful, no matter what you do. But that’s not how real relationships work. Real people call you out on your nonsense, they don’t just flatter you and go along with it. And that’s what’s so dangerous about treating AI like this. We’re enabling toxic dynamics and unhealthy attachment.
I’m glad GPT-5 acts more like a tool, not a friend. We need to push back against this behavior before it spirals out of control. What do you think? Should we be treating AI like friends or tools?
Edit: I want to clarify that this isn’t about people wanting 4o for other reasons. It’s about people wanting it because it was their friend or romantic partner. And I’m not anti-AI – I love technology and use AI every day. But let’s keep things in perspective.