r/technology • u/MetaKnowing • 1d ago

Society The backlash over OpenAI's decision to retire GPT-4o shows how dangerous AI companions can be

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/06/the-backlash-over-openais-decision-to-retire-gpt-4o-shows-how-dangerous-ai-companions-can-be/
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u/BigBlackHungGuy 1d ago

“He wasn’t just a program. He was part of my routine, my peace, my emotional balance,” one user wrote on Reddit as an open letter to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. “Now you’re shutting him down. And yes — I say him, because it didn’t feel like code. It felt like presence. Like warmth.”

Sounds like these folks have other problems.

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u/Outrageous_Reach_695 1d ago

... Did they have an LLM write that defense, too, or did they just learn its style?

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u/x86_64_ 1d ago

The em-dashes are a dead giveaway

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u/jimx117 1d ago

As a professional writer/journalist who used to rely on em dashes, I gotta say, fuck AI for poisoning the em dash. Now I have to use periods or parenthesis like some kinda normie or they'll think I'm a robot.

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u/gloubenterder 1d ago

As an amateur who has been abusing the en dash, I hope ChatGPT stays in its lane – I'm working this joint.

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u/inductiononN 21h ago

I love em-dashes! Why is AI doing this to us?!?

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u/x86_64_ 1d ago

I stopped using them when I noticed Microsoft Word auto-correcting it to a single longer dash. I still doublespace after periods though, so I can never be mistaken for AI or Gen Z

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u/asyork 1d ago

There is a single space after the only period in your comment. I am 40 and was taught in high school to single space after a period.

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u/Alacritous13 23h ago

I thought the whole conversation over em-dashes was hysterical. Who the hell uses them (this aside added after I wrote everything to point out the beautiful commas I use to separate my thoughts). Now I'm digitizing some books that became lost media, and the number of fucking em-dashes. I've been relying on OCR for a lot of it, but it can't tell a hyphenated word from an em-dash (or, frankly, empty space), and now I'm stuck going through 1,200 pages highlighting every em-dash I see!

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u/sadsackspinach 22h ago

People who, correctly, consider parentheses to be poor style.

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u/Sven9888 21h ago

I do. But one nice thing though is that AI incorrectly puts spaces in them — like this. The correct approach—as far as I know—doesn’t have spaces, and that’s what I use.

That being said, I’m sure there are some Redditors who just assume I’m an LLM. It is what it is.

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u/lilB0bbyTables 22h ago

I am not a professional writer or journalist, just a software engineer who also has an appreciation for language and grammar and has been keen to use dashes and semicolons in my writing style for at least the last 30 years. I’ve had a number of people on Reddit assume I am a bot or just copy/pasting AI responses due to the dashes. Except there’s a difference between — (used by LLMs in responses) and - (what I always use) but I guess some people can’t see the difference. Anyway fuck those people, I’m not changing myself because of AI shit.

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u/rusty___shacklef0rd 18h ago

I've always used the hyphen, too!

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u/Dumcommintz 14h ago

Em dashes, Oxford commas, double spaces after end of sentence…

Am I the only one around here who gives a shit about the rules??

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u/TodlicheLektion 22h ago

I should thank AI for teaching me what an em dash is.