OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and several other researchers and engineers came to Reddit the day after debuting the powerful new GPT-5 AI model for the time-honored tradition of an Ask Me Anything thread.
Though the discussion ranged over all kinds of technical and product elements, there were a few topics that stood out as particularly important to posters based on the frequency and passion with which they were discussed. Here are a few of the most notable things we learned from the OpenAI AMA.
Pining for GPT-4o
The biggest recurring theme in the AMA was a mournful wail from users who loved GPT-4o and felt personally attacked by its removal. That’s not an exaggeration, as one user posted, “BRING BACK 4o GPT-5 is wearing the skin of my dead friend.”To which Altman replied, “what an…evocative image. ok we hear you on 4o, working on something now.”
This wasn’t just one isolated request, either. Another post asked to keep both GPT-4o and GPT-4.1 alongside GPT-5, arguing that the older models had distinct personalities and creative rhythms. Altman admitted they were “looking into this now.”
Most requests were a little more subdued, with one poster asking, “Why are we getting rid of the variants and 4o when we all have unique communication styles? Please bring them back!”
Altman’s answer was brief but direct in conceding the point. He wrote, “ok, we hear you all on 4o; thanks for the time to give us the feedback (and the passion!). we are going to bring it back for plus users, and will watch usage to determine how long to support it.”
It is interesting that so many heavy users seem to prefer the style of the older model, and prefer it to the objectively better newer ones.
Filtering history
Another big topic was ChatGPT’s safety filter, both currently and before GPT-5 which many posted complaints about for being overzealous. One user described a scenario where they’d been flagged for discussing historical topics, with a response about Gauguin getting flagged and deleted because the artist was a “sex pest,” and the user’s own clarification question itself getting flagged.
Altman’s answer was a mixture of agreement and reality check. “Yeah, we will continue to improve this,” he said. “It is a legit hard thing; the lines are often really quite blurry sometimes.” He stressed that OpenAI wants to allow “very wide latitude” but admitted that the boundary between unsafe and safe content is far from perfect, but that “people should of course not get banned for learning.”
New tier
Another questioner zeroed in on a gap in OpenAI’s subscription model: “Are you guys planning to add another plan for solo power users that are not pros? 20$ plan offers too little for some, and the $200 tier is overkill.”
Altman’s answer was succinct, simply saying, “Yes we will do something here.” No details, just a confirmation that the idea’s on the table. That brevity leaves open possibilities from ‘next week’ to just saying ‘the discussion starts now.’ But the pricing gap is a big deal for power users who find themselves constrained by the Plus tier but can’t justify enterprise pricing. If OpenAI does create an intermediate tier, it could reshape how dedicated individual users engage with the platform.
The future
At the end of the AMA, Altman shared some new information about the current and future state of ChatGPT and GPT-5. He started by admitting to some issues with the release, writing that “we expected some bumpiness as we roll out so many things at once. But it was a little more bumpy than we hoped for!”
That bumpiness ended up making GPT-5 seem not as impressive as it should have until now.
“GPT-5 will seem smarter starting today,” Altman wrote. “Yesterday, we had a sev [severity, meaning system issue] and the autoswitcher was out of commission for a chunk of the day, and the result was GPT-5 seemed way dumber.”
He also promised more access for ChatGPT Plus users, with double the rate limits, as well as the upcoming return of GPT-4o, at least for those same subscribers. The AMA did paint a clearer picture of what OpenAI is willing to change in response to public pressure.
The return of GPT-4o for Plus users at least acknowledges that raw capability isn’t the only metric that matters. If users are this vocal about keeping an older model alive, future releases of GPT-5 and beyond may be designed with more deliberate flavors built in beyond just the personality types promised for GPT-5.
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erichs211@gmail.com (Eric Hal Schwartz)
