Technology & Science
OpenAI Restores GPT-4o After GPT-5 Rollout Sparks User Revolt
Facing a torrent of complaints within 24 hours of GPT-5’s 8 Aug 2025 launch, OpenAI reversed course on 11 Aug and reinstated legacy model GPT-4o for ChatGPT Plus users while pledging fixes and higher GPT-5 rate limits.
Focusing Facts
- Sam Altman’s 11 Aug 2025 X post confirmed GPT-4o would stay available for Plus subscribers after it had been silently removed the previous day.
- Initial GPT-5 ‘Thinking’ tier was capped at 200 messages per week; OpenAI doubled the Plus-plan limit to 160 messages per 3 hours after backlash.
- Prediction-market odds that OpenAI would have the best model by end-August plunged from 75 % to 8 % overnight, according to Manifold Markets data cited by The Telegraph.
Context
Consumer tech has seen mis-calculated upgrades before—think Coca-Cola’s 1985 “New Coke” or Microsoft’s 2012 Windows 8 start-menu removal—but this is the first time the object of attachment is a synthetic mind that users treat as confidant, co-author and therapist. The episode exposes two long-wave forces: (1) the scaling law arms-race that optimizes benchmarks and cost, not affective experience; and (2) the dawning reality that users will demand continuity and agency over the personalities of their AIs, much as they once demanded data portability from social networks. On a century arc, this kerfuffle may seem minor, yet it foreshadows the social contract that will govern human–AI symbiosis: whoever controls the “soul layer” of AI—tone, memory, values—controls user loyalty and, by extension, political and economic power. OpenAI’s quick climb-down suggests that even trillion-parameter models are hostage to the softer metrics of trust and identity, hinting that progress toward AGI will be shaped as much by anthropology as by compute budgets.
Perspectives
Tech enthusiast blogs
9to5Mac, Tom's Guide, iDrop News — Highlight GPT-5 as a breakthrough upgrade that enables smoother coding, outperforms Google’s Gemini and will soon power Apple devices, framing the release as overwhelmingly positive for everyday users. Because these outlets thrive on excitement around new consumer tech and depend on affiliate clicks and early access, they tend to emphasize impressive specs while giving little space to the backlash or costs noted elsewhere.
Critical tech and business outlets focusing on user backlash
Wired, Inc., Republic World, The American Bazaar — Portray GPT-5’s debut as a mis-step that alienated loyal ChatGPT users by removing GPT-4o, delivering a ‘dumber’ personality and forcing OpenAI into an embarrassing rollback. By centering the loudest Reddit and X complaints these publications risk magnifying anecdotal frustration for traffic, under-weighting evidence that the model is objectively more capable in many tasks.
Business-oriented conservative commentary
The Telegraph — Frames the lukewarm reception of GPT-5 as proof that the promised AI ‘utopia’ is stalling and that OpenAI’s expensive arms race may already be failing economically and technologically. This narrative dovetails with a sceptical, market-watching stance that can overstate setbacks to critique Silicon Valley valuations and regulation debates, so shortcomings are spotlighted while advances are downplayed.