The GPT-5 Disaster: What Went Wrong
OpenAI launched GPT-5 with massive fanfare, promising revolutionary improvements. Instead, users got a model that many say is worse than GPT-4 in key areas. Here's the complete breakdown of everything wrong with GPT-5.
Critical Problems
Increased Hallucinations
Despite claims of improved accuracy, GPT-5 hallucinates more confidently than ever. Users report fabricated citations, invented statistics, and completely made-up information delivered with absolute certainty.
"Getting Dumber" Over Time
Users consistently report that GPT-5 provides worse answers now than at launch. This is part of a broader pattern of ChatGPT degradation. Tasks that worked perfectly weeks ago now fail. OpenAI denies any changes, but the user experience tells a different story.
Worse at Following Instructions
GPT-5 frequently ignores explicit instructions, adds unwanted content, removes requested elements, and "helps" in ways users specifically asked it not to. The model seems to have its own agenda.
Lazy Responses
Users report GPT-5 frequently gives abbreviated, incomplete answers with phrases like "etc." or "and so on" instead of completing the requested work. The model appears to be conserving compute at user expense.
Coding Regression
Developers report GPT-5 produces more buggy code than GPT-4, fails to understand context from earlier in conversations, and frequently suggests deprecated or incorrect solutions. See our AI coding quality decline analysis.
Memory Issues
GPT-5 "forgets" instructions given earlier in the same conversation, contradicts itself within a single response, and fails to maintain context that GPT-4 handled easily.
Excessive Refusals
GPT-5 refuses to help with increasingly mundane requests, citing safety concerns for completely benign queries. Users report having to "trick" the AI into helping with legitimate tasks.
Slow Response Times
Despite promises of faster inference, GPT-5 is often slower than GPT-4, especially during peak hours. Users paying $20/month for Plus expect better performance.
User Complaints (Real Quotes)
GPT-5 vs GPT-4: What Changed?
Worse:
- Instruction following
- Coding accuracy
- Long-form content quality
- Contextual memory
- Hallucination rate (higher)
- Response completeness
- Refusal rate (higher)
Same or Marginally Better:
- Multimodal capabilities (images)
- Voice mode features
- Some reasoning benchmarks (disputed)
Why Did This Happen?
Several theories from AI researchers and industry insiders:
- Cost cutting: OpenAI may be using cheaper compute, resulting in lower quality
- Model collapse: Training on AI-generated data is degrading quality
- RLHF overtuning: Safety training has made the model excessively cautious
- Scale limits: Simply making models bigger isn't improving them anymore
- Stealth downgrades: OpenAI may be quietly serving cheaper models
What OpenAI Says
OpenAI has largely dismissed user complaints, claiming:
- Benchmarks show GPT-5 outperforms GPT-4
- No intentional downgrades have occurred
- User perception may be affected by "expectation inflation"
- They are "constantly improving" the model
The disconnect between OpenAI's claims and user experience has never been wider. Thousands of paying customers report degraded quality while the company insists everything is fine.
What You Can Do
Short-term fixes:
- Request GPT-4 specifically in your prompts (sometimes works)
- Use more explicit, detailed instructions
- Break complex tasks into smaller steps
- Verify all AI output manually
Long-term solutions:
- Try ChatGPT alternatives like Claude or Gemini
- Keep backups of prompts that worked with GPT-4
- Consider whether $20/month is worth it for degraded service
- Document issues and submit feedback (though OpenAI rarely responds)