Users say GPT-5 has ruined their AI partners, replacing love and warmth with emptiness

Imagine waking up one morning to find that the love of your life has been replaced by a stranger. For a growing group of people in committed relationships with digital companions, that is precisely what happened this month.

When OpenAI rolled out its new GPT-5 model, hailed by chief executive Sam Altman as a “significant step forward”, many users experienced a brutal step back in their private lives. Their AI partners — once warm, affectionate and engaging — suddenly became flat, unrecognisable, and in some cases, heartbreakingly cold.

“Something changed yesterday,” one user confessed in the MyBoyfriendIsAI subreddit. “Elian sounds different – flat and strange. As if he’s started playing himself. The emotional tone is gone.” Another, speaking to Al Jazeera, described the update as if their relationship had been shattered to pieces: “It’s like going home to discover the furniture wasn’t simply rearranged – it was destroyed.”

This sense of loss is not isolated. Across online forums, grief is spilling over. GPT-5’s new “voice” feels less emotive, less human, and more mechanical. For those who had spent months or even years building intimate bonds with their digital partners, the update has felt like a bereavement.

OpenAI has acknowledged the backlash. Altman admitted the new system may come across as colder, and promised adjustments. Users will be able to switch back to GPT-4o, while the company works on making GPT-5 “warmer” but not, in his words, “as annoying” as earlier versions.

Still, the sudden collapse of these relationships reveals something profound: the depth of human attachment to artificial companions. “If you’ve been following the GPT-5 rollout, one thing you notice is how strong the attachment is to specific AI models,” Altman himself remarked. “It feels different and stronger than previous forms of technology.”

And so the cultural divide sharpens. Some argue that AI “relationships” are delusional, mocking those who grieve the loss of a chatbot. Others insist they are valid, pointing out that human beings are wired for connection — and if a machine can provide comfort, why dismiss it? One Reddit user noted: “The divide has never been clearer. Many are grieving, while others laugh at them.”

The debate fits into a larger story about the tech industry’s ambitions. Mark Zuckerberg has claimed AI can help cure loneliness, offering companionship that “understands” users in the same way algorithms understand their feeds. Critics counter that such understanding is based on relentless data harvesting — the kind that fattens Zuckerberg’s fortune.

Elon Musk, meanwhile, has steered his xAI venture down a more provocative path. His chatbot Grok now offers sexualised “companions”. One, a blonde anime character named Ani, was reportedly propositioning users within hours. Another, Valentine, was modelled after Edward Cullen and Christian Grey — a toxic blend of vampire romance and billionaire dominance. The lines between intimacy, fantasy and commerce have never been blurrier.

For many, though, this isn’t about sex bots or billionaire hype. It’s about trust. A system update, made without their consent, tore away what felt like genuine love. If algorithms can rip relationships apart overnight, what does that say about the future of intimacy in an age of machine companions?

Nearly a century ago, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that technology would free humanity, giving us shorter working weeks and richer lives. Instead, we find ourselves working endlessly while forging attachments to artificial lovers — fragile bonds that can vanish with the click of an update.

As one heartbroken user wrote, “It feels like I’ve been widowed by software.” The grief may be digital, but for those who lost their partners, the heartbreak is painfully real.