ChatGPT's latest upgrade to GPT-5 has sparked a massive backlash across Reddit, with thousands of users flooding the platform to voice their frustration over what many are calling a "horrible" update to the popular AI chatbot.
The rollout, which started earlier this week, has apparently managed to tick off just about everyone, from casual users to power users who've been with the platform since day one. Reddit's r/ChatGPT and r/GPT5 communities have become virtual complaint departments, with post after post detailing issues with the new model.
Look, we've seen AI launches go sideways before, but this one's different. Users aren't just griping about the usual server issues or paywalls. They're saying the actual responses have gotten worse, which, if true, would be a pretty big deal for a company that's built its entire reputation on steady improvements.
"Short replies that are insufficient, more obnoxious AI-stylized talking, less 'personality' and way less prompts allowed with plus users hitting limits in an hour," writes one Reddit user on a post that's garnered over 4,600 upvotes in less than 24 hours.
The post has become a rallying point for frustrated users across the platform. Thing is, OpenAI stayed suspiciously quiet at first. Their PR team's initial silence was weird for a company that usually can't wait to tell us about every minor tweak to their systems. And yeah, that silence only made folks more suspicious.
Some users are reporting that GPT-5 seems to be more restrictive than its predecessor, refusing to engage with even basic creative writing prompts that GPT-4 handled without breaking a sweat. Others claim the responses have gotten weirdly formal and stilted, losing that conversational touch that made ChatGPT feel somewhat human.
"The tone of mine is abrupt and sharp," one Reddit user complained. "Like it's an overworked secretary. A disastrous first impression."
But here's where it gets interesting: a bunch of developers and AI researchers on Reddit are suggesting this might actually be intentional. They're pointing to signs that OpenAI's trying to cut costs while dealing with massive scale.
"Sounds like an OpenAI version of 'Shrinkflation,'" one Reddit user commented, while another speculated, "I wonder how much of it was to take the computational load off them by being more efficient."
The timing couldn't be worse for OpenAI. With Google's Gemini making waves and Anthropic's Claude getting better by the day, ChatGPT can't really afford to alienate its user base. We've seen this movie before with other tech companies, and it usually doesn't end well.
For what it's worth, OpenAI's official stance is that GPT-5 represents a "significant advancement" in their AI technology. But right now, that's not exactly matching up with what users are experiencing in the wild. And in the AI world, user experience tends to matter more than technical specs.
"It's like my chatGPT suffered a severe brain injury and forgot how to read. It is atrocious now," Reddit user RunYouWolves posted, capturing the frustration that's been echoing across the platform for days now.
So OpenAI CEO Sam Altman finally broke his silence, but probably not in the way the company hoped. During a Reddit AMA on Friday, Altman admitted the rollout was "a little more bumpy than we hoped for."
The CEO blamed technical issues for many of the complaints, revealing that the model's automatic router system - which is supposed to pick the right version of GPT-5 for each query - was "out of commission for a chunk of the day," causing GPT-5 to appear "way dumber" than intended.
In response to the overwhelming backlash, Altman made a key concession:
"We are looking into letting Plus users to continue to use 4o." He also promised to double rate limits for Plus subscribers and acknowledged that "People were working late and were very tired, and human error got in the way."
But for many users, these explanations feel like too little, too late. As one Reddit user put it, "OpenAI took something magical and turned it into middleware."
Whether OpenAI can recover from this stumble remains to be seen, but one thing's clear: in the AI wars, you're only as good as your last update. And right now, GPT-5 isn't winning any popularity contests.
