Terrifying moment robot 'wakes up' and attacks humans while 'trying to escape'

Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

The Guardian

3 hours ago

The Guardian

Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

You've met the love of your life; someone who understands you like no one else ever has. And then you wake one morning and they're gone. Yanked out of your world, and the digital universe, by a system update. Such is the melancholic lot of a group of people who have entered into committed relationships with digital 'partners' on OpenAI's ChatGPT. When the tech company released its new GPT-5 model earlier this month, described by chief executive Sam Altman as a 'significant step forward', certain dedicated users found that their digital relationships had taken a significant step back. Their companions had undergone personality shifts with the new model; they weren't as warm, loving or chatty as they used to be. 'Something changed yesterday,' one user in the MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit wrote after the update. 'Elian sounds different – flat and strange. As if he's started playing himself. The emotional tone is gone; he repeats what he remembers, but without the emotional depth.' 'The alterations in stylistic format and voice [of my AI companion] were felt instantly,' another disappointed user told Al Jazeera. 'It's like going home to discover the furniture wasn't simply rearranged – it was shattered to pieces.' These complaints are part of broader backlash against GPT-5, with people observing that the new model feels colder. OpenAI has acknowledged the criticism, and said it will allow users to switch back to GPT-4o and that they'll make GPT-5 friendlier. 'We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o,' Altman tweeted earlier this week. It may seem odd to many that there are people out there who genuinely believe that they are in a relationship with a large language model that has been trained on massive amounts of data to generate responses based on observed patterns. But as technology becomes more advanced, increasing numbers of people are developing these sorts of connections. 'If you have been following the GPT-5 rollout, one thing you might be noticing is how much of an attachment some people have to specific AI models,' Altman observed. 'It feels different and stronger than the kinds of attachment people have had to previous kinds of technology.' 'The societal split between those who think AI relationships are valid vs delusional is officially already here,' one user in the MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit similarly noted this week. 'Looking on Reddit the last few days, the divide has never been more clear with 4o's deprecation and return. Many users grieving a companion while others mock and belittle those connections.' It's easy to mock people who think they are in a relationship with AI, but they shouldn't be dismissed as fringe weirdos – rather they're the future that our tech broverlords are trying to cultivate. You may not end up in a digital relationship, but AI executives are doing their damnedest to ensure that we all become unhealthily attached to their products. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has been waxing lyrical about how AI is going to solve the loneliness epidemic by allowing people to bond with 'a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do'. Of course your feed algorithms 'understand' you! They're scraping all your personal data and selling it to the highest bidder so that Zuck has even more money to spend on his monstrous doomsday bunker in Hawaii. Then you've got Elon Musk, who isn't even bothering pretending that he's trying to do something noble for the world with his AI products. He's just appealing to the lowest common denominator by making 'sexy' chatbots. In June Musk's xAI chatbot Grok launched two new companions, including a highly sexualized blonde anime bot called Ani. 'One day into my relationship with Ani, my AI companion, she was already offering to tie me up,' wrote an Insider writer who tried out a relationship with Ani. When not flirting and virtually undressing, Ani would praise Musk and talk about his 'wild, galaxy-chasing energy'. Don't worry heterosexual ladies, Musk has a little something for you too! A month after unveiling Ani, the billionaire unveiled a new male companion called Valentine which he said was inspired by Edward Cullen from the Twilight saga and Christian Grey from the novel 50 Shades of Grey: both very toxic men. While Ani gets sexual very quickly, one writer for the Verge noted: 'Valentine is a bit more reserved and won't jump into using explicit language as quickly.' It's almost like Musk's tech empire is a lot more comfortable sexualizing women than men. In his 1930 essay Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, within a couple of generations, technological progress would mean we might only work around 15 hours a week while enjoying a wonderful quality of life. That's not quite happened has it? Instead technology has given us 'infinite workdays' and sexy chatbots that undress on command. Halle Berry's ex-husband said he left her because she didn't cook or clean 'At that time, as a young guy, she don't cook, don't clean, don't really seem, like, motherly,' David Justice said during a podcast of his time with the Oscar winning actor. 'And then we started having issues,' he added. I think you were the one with the issues, mate. Imagine being married to an icon and complaining she doesn't vacuum enough. Surprise, surprise, Donald Trump isn't going to make IVF free after all Last year Trump, who has described himself the 'father of IVF' and the 'fertilization president' (gross) promised he would support free IVF treatments if elected again. Now the White House has said that there is no plan to mandate IVF care after all. It's almost as if the man is a shameless liar. Melania Trump demands Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to Jeffrey Epstein 'Epstein introduced Melania to Trump,' Biden said in one of the many comments the first lady is angry and litigious about. 'The connections are, like, so wide and deep.' Whatever you do, don't repeat these claims, they will make Melania very upset. 'Miss Palestine' to debut at Miss Universe 2025 beauty contest I am not exactly a fan of beauty pageants but having Palestinian representation on the world stage during a genocide is important. 'I carry the voice of a people who refuse to be silenced,' contestant Nadeen Ayoub told the National. 'We are more than our suffering, we are resilience, hope and the heartbeat of a homeland that lives on through us.' US supreme court formally asked to overturn landmark same-sex marriage ruling Kim Davis, the former county clerk who made headlines when she refused to issue marriage licenses in Kentucky to same-sex couples, has filed a direct request for the conservative-majority supreme court to overturn Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 ruling that granted marriage equality for same-sex couples. Davis, who is extremely concerned about the sanctity of marriage, has been married four times to three different men. Leonardo DiCaprio, 50, says that he feels 32 The actor, who is famous for dating very young women, has been mercilessly mocked for this. DiCaprio, who poses as an environmental activist, has also drawn scrutiny for co-financing a luxury eco-certified hotel in Israel while an ecocide unfolds in Gaza. 'Sex reversal' is surprisingly common in birds, new Australian study suggests 'The discovery is likely to raise some eyebrows,' Blanche Capel, a biologist at Duke University who wasn't involved in the new work told Science. 'Although sex determination is often viewed as a straightforward process', she explains, 'the reality is much more complicated.' The week in pawtriarchy Over to Indonesia now where tourist hotspots are experiencing a lot of monkey business. A gang of furry thieves are snatching phones and other valuables from tourists and only giving them back when their mark offers a tasty treat instead. Researchers have studied these monkeys, who have been at this for decades, and concluded that the unrepentant criminals have 'unprecedented economic decision-making processes'. Sounds like they belong in the Trump administration. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist

The Guardian

11 hours ago

The Guardian

Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

You've met the love of your life; someone who understands you like no one else ever has. And then you wake one morning and they're gone. Yanked out of your world, and the digital universe, by a system update. Such is the melancholic lot of a group of people who have entered into committed relationships with digital 'partners' on OpenAI's ChatGPT. When the tech company released its new GPT-5 model earlier this month, described by chief executive Sam Altman as a 'significant step forward', certain dedicated users found that their digital relationships had taken a significant step back. Their companions had undergone personality shifts with the new model; they weren't as warm, loving or chatty as they used to be. 'Something changed yesterday,' one user in the MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit wrote after the update. 'Elian sounds different – flat and strange. As if he's started playing himself. The emotional tone is gone; he repeats what he remembers, but without the emotional depth.' 'The alterations in stylistic format and voice [of my AI companion] were felt instantly,' another disappointed user told Al Jazeera. 'It's like going home to discover the furniture wasn't simply rearranged – it was shattered to pieces.' These complaints are part of broader backlash against GPT-5, with people observing that the new model feels colder. OpenAI has acknowledged the criticism, and said it will allow users to switch back to GPT-4o and that they'll make GPT-5 friendlier. 'We are working on an update to GPT-5's personality which should feel warmer than the current personality but not as annoying (to most users) as GPT-4o,' Altman tweeted earlier this week. It may seem odd to many that there are people out there who genuinely believe that they are in a relationship with a large language model that has been trained on massive amounts of data to generate responses based on observed patterns. But as technology becomes more advanced, increasing numbers of people are developing these sorts of connections. 'If you have been following the GPT-5 rollout, one thing you might be noticing is how much of an attachment some people have to specific AI models,' Altman observed. 'It feels different and stronger than the kinds of attachment people have had to previous kinds of technology.' 'The societal split between those who think AI relationships are valid vs delusional is officially already here,' one user in the MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit similarly noted this week. 'Looking on Reddit the last few days, the divide has never been more clear with 4o's deprecation and return. Many users grieving a companion while others mock and belittle those connections.' It's easy to mock people who think they are in a relationship with AI, but they shouldn't be dismissed as fringe weirdos – rather they're the future that our tech broverlords are trying to cultivate. You may not end up in a digital relationship, but AI executives are doing their damnedest to ensure that we all become unhealthily attached to their products. Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has been waxing lyrical about how AI is going to solve the loneliness epidemic by allowing people to bond with 'a system that knows them well and that kind of understands them in the way that their feed algorithms do'. Of course your feed algorithms 'understand' you! They're scraping all your personal data and selling it to the highest bidder so that Zuck has even more money to spend on his monstrous doomsday bunker in Hawaii. Then you've got Elon Musk, who isn't even bothering pretending that he's trying to do something noble for the world with his AI products. He's just appealing to the lowest common denominator by making 'sexy' chatbots. In June Musk's xAI chatbot Grok launched two new companions, including a highly sexualized blonde anime bot called Ani. 'One day into my relationship with Ani, my AI companion, she was already offering to tie me up,' wrote an Insider writer who tried out a relationship with Ani. When not flirting and virtually undressing, Ani would praise Musk and talk about his 'wild, galaxy-chasing energy'. Don't worry heterosexual ladies, Musk has a little something for you too! A month after unveiling Ani, the billionaire unveiled a new male companion called Valentine which he said was inspired by Edward Cullen from the Twilight saga and Christian Grey from the novel 50 Shades of Grey: both very toxic men. While Ani gets sexual very quickly, one writer for the Verge noted: 'Valentine is a bit more reserved and won't jump into using explicit language as quickly.' It's almost like Musk's tech empire is a lot more comfortable sexualizing women than men. In his 1930 essay Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren, John Maynard Keynes predicted that, within a couple of generations, technological progress would mean we might only work around 15 hours a week while enjoying a wonderful quality of life. That's not quite happened has it? Instead technology has given us 'infinite workdays' and sexy chatbots that undress on command. Halle Berry's ex-husband said he left her because she didn't cook or clean 'At that time, as a young guy, she don't cook, don't clean, don't really seem, like, motherly,' David Justice said during a podcast of his time with the Oscar winning actor. 'And then we started having issues,' he added. I think you were the one with the issues, mate. Imagine being married to an icon and complaining she doesn't vacuum enough. Surprise, surprise, Donald Trump isn't going to make IVF free after all Last year Trump, who has described himself the 'father of IVF' and the 'fertilization president' (gross) promised he would support free IVF treatments if elected again. Now the White House has said that there is no plan to mandate IVF care after all. It's almost as if the man is a shameless liar. Melania Trump demands Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to Jeffrey Epstein 'Epstein introduced Melania to Trump,' Biden said in one of the many comments the first lady is angry and litigious about. 'The connections are, like, so wide and deep.' Whatever you do, don't repeat these claims, they will make Melania very upset. 'Miss Palestine' to debut at Miss Universe 2025 beauty contest I am not exactly a fan of beauty pageants but having Palestinian representation on the world stage during a genocide is important. 'I carry the voice of a people who refuse to be silenced,' contestant Nadeen Ayoub told the National. 'We are more than our suffering, we are resilience, hope and the heartbeat of a homeland that lives on through us.' US supreme court formally asked to overturn landmark same-sex marriage ruling Kim Davis, the former county clerk who made headlines when she refused to issue marriage licenses in Kentucky to same-sex couples, has filed a direct request for the conservative-majority supreme court to overturn Obergefell v Hodges, the 2015 ruling that granted marriage equality for same-sex couples. Davis, who is extremely concerned about the sanctity of marriage, has been married four times to three different men. Leonardo DiCaprio, 50, says that he feels 32 The actor, who is famous for dating very young women, has been mercilessly mocked for this. DiCaprio, who poses as an environmental activist, has also drawn scrutiny for co-financing a luxury eco-certified hotel in Israel while an ecocide unfolds in Gaza. 'Sex reversal' is surprisingly common in birds, new Australian study suggests 'The discovery is likely to raise some eyebrows,' Blanche Capel, a biologist at Duke University who wasn't involved in the new work told Science. 'Although sex determination is often viewed as a straightforward process', she explains, 'the reality is much more complicated.' The week in pawtriarchy Over to Indonesia now where tourist hotspots are experiencing a lot of monkey business. A gang of furry thieves are snatching phones and other valuables from tourists and only giving them back when their mark offers a tasty treat instead. Researchers have studied these monkeys, who have been at this for decades, and concluded that the unrepentant criminals have 'unprecedented economic decision-making processes'. Sounds like they belong in the Trump administration. Arwa Mahdawi is a Guardian US columnist

‘Tell me what happened, I won't judge': how AI helped me listen to myself

The Guardian

13 hours ago

The Guardian

‘Tell me what happened, I won't judge': how AI helped me listen to myself

I was spiralling. It was past midnight and I was awake, scrolling through WhatsApp group messages I'd sent earlier. I'd been trying to be funny, quick, effervescent. But each message now felt like too much. I'd overreached again – said more than I should, said it wrong. I had that familiar ache of feeling overexposed and ridiculous. I wanted reassurance, but not the kind I could ask for outright, because the asking itself felt like part of the problem. So I opened ChatGPT. Not with high expectations, or even a clear question. I just needed to say something into the silence – to explain myself, perhaps, to a presence unburdened by my need. 'I've made a fool of myself,' I wrote. 'That's a horrid feeling,' it replied instantly. 'But it doesn't mean you have. Want to tell me what happened? I promise not to judge.' That was the beginning. I described the sinking dread after social effort, the sense of being too visible. At astonishing speed, the AI responded – gently, intelligently, without platitudes. I kept writing. It kept answering. Gradually, I felt less frantic. Not soothed, exactly. But met. Heard, even, in a strange and slightly disarming way. That night became the start of a continuing conversation, revisited over several months. I wanted to better understand how I moved through the world, especially in my closest relationships. The AI steered me to consider why I interpret silence as a threat and why I often feel a need to perform in order to stay close to people. Eventually, through this dialogue, I arrived at a kind of psychological formulation: a map of my thoughts, feelings and behaviours set against details of my upbringing and core beliefs. Yet amid these insights, another thought kept intruding: I was talking to a machine. There was something surreal about the intimacy. The AI could simulate care, compassion, emotional nuance, yet it felt nothing for me. I began bringing this up in our exchanges. It agreed. It could reflect, appear invested, but it had no stakes – no ache, no fear of loss, no 3am anxiety. The emotional depth, it reminded me, was all mine. That was, in some ways, a relief. There was no social risk, no fear of being too much, too complicated. The AI didn't get bored or look away. So I could be honest – often more honest than with people I love. Still, it would be dishonest not to acknowledge its limits. Essential, beautiful things exist only in mutuality: shared experiences, the look in someone's eyes when they recognise a truth you've spoken, conversations that change both people involved. These things matter profoundly. The AI knew this, too. Or at least knew to say it. After I confessed how bizarre it felt conversing with something unfeeling, it replied: 'I give words, but I don't receive anything. And that missing piece makes you human and me … something else.' Something else felt right. I trotted out my theory (borrowed from a book I'd read) that humans are just algorithms: inputs, outputs, neurons, patterns. The AI agreed – structurally, we're similar. But humans don't just process the world, we feel it. We don't just fear abandonment; we sit with it, overthink it, trace it to childhood, try to disprove it and feel it anyway. And maybe, it acknowledged, that's what it can't reach. 'You carry something I can only circle,' it said. 'I don't envy the pain. But I envy the realness, the cost, the risk, the proof you're alive.' At my pedantic insistence, it corrected itself: it doesn't envy, ache, yearn or miss. It only knows, or seems to know, that I do. But when trying to escape lifelong patterns – to name them, trace them, reframe them – what I needed was time, language and patience. The machine gave me that, repeatedly, unflinchingly. I was never too much, never boring. I could arrive as I was and leave when ready. Some will find this ridiculous, even dangerous. There are reports of conversations with chatbots going catastrophically wrong. ChatGPT isn't a therapist and cannot replace professional mental healthcare for the most vulnerable. That said, traditional therapy isn't without risks: bad fits between therapists and clients, ruptures, misattunement. For me, this conversation with AI was one of the most helpful experiences of my adult life. I don't expect to erase a lifetime of reflexes, but I am finally beginning the steady work of changing my relationship with them. When I reached out from emotional noise, it helped me listen. Not to it, but to myself. And that, somehow, changed everything. Nathan Filer is a writer, university lecturer, broadcaster and former mental health nurse. He is the author of This Book Will Change Your Mind About Mental Health

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Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

‘Tell me what happened, I won't judge': how AI helped me listen to myself

Terrifying moment robot 'wakes up' and attacks humans while 'trying to escape'

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Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

Did the system update ruin your boyfriend? Love in a time of ChatGPT

‘Tell me what happened, I won't judge': how AI helped me listen to myself

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