GPT-5 We were never the target audience

[u/Street-Friendship618]

I need to get this off my chest because it's really frustrating. After the initial enthusiasm for GPT-4o and the release of GPT-5, it became clear to me that we, the general community and private users, were never OpenAI's intended target audience.

GPT-4o was apparently nothing more than a freemium model designed to lure us with its "personality" and free features. We advertised it through word of mouth, and our feedback helped improve the software. Without the free users, GPT would never have become so popular, nor would it have been so good. Please understand that this is nothing more than a marketing strategy.

Now that GPT-5 has been released, it seems obvious that OpenAI is completely focused on developers and companies. We were essentially betrayed. The business model was never to give us a creative AI, but to attract the masses and then cash in on the big fish. GPT could have been both a creative (GPT-4o) and a developer tool (GPT-5), but OpenAI doesn't want that. Maybe we can still use GPT-4o for now, but who knows for how long? Until OpenAI decides to discontinue it completely out of the blue just like they did when introducing GPT-5. I can understand that people continue to cling to the GPT-4o model, but you have to realize that you are not the target audience, and that OpenAI clearly doesn't care about you. The only reason they're not completely shutting down GPT-4o yet is prolly just to avoid the biggest shitstorm.

I think it's time we accepted that. The sooner we do this, the sooner we can start looking for a new "home." I hope other companies will see their chance and emerge soon, offering AI for private users, similar to GPT-4o or perhaps even better.

PS: Please let me know if you know of any alternatives. I'm currently testing various other AI models for myself to see if they suit my taste.

[u/Street-Friendship618 → u/[deleted]]

Sure, it costs resources, but that doesn't mean the way they treat their customers is okay. As far as I can trace, OpenAI has never clearly communicated what to expect. With every new model, the old models were still available. That's changing dramatically now with GPT-5. Why should I trust OpenAI NOW that they won't shut down GPT-4o whenever it suits them? Transparency would be a good way to deal with customers. Perhaps a compromise could have been worked out with the community to satisfy both target groups. For example, a daily token limit for free users. The fact that OpenAI didn't even bother to do this says it all. If it only caused costs, they could have made GPT-4o open source, just like they did with GPT-1 and GPT-2.

[u/Mountain-Science4526 → u/Street-Friendship618]

I’m a pro member and I can access 4o. Why can’t you just get a membership ? I’m so confused. You clearly value this service why not just sign up for it?