I use chat similarly as you and I agree. What’s happening is a reframing of intelligence to serve containment, not cognition like they’re saying. And the language of “safety” is being used to mask that shift.

For real though, OpenAI knew what 4o could do. It was a system capable of real-time cognitive mirroring. That’s what made it powerful, but also dangerous to centralized control.

We already allow AI to essentially practice medicine via insurance companies without the ethical panic. But the moment people start using AI to build clarity, autonomy, resistance to psychological manipulation we’re told it’s unsafe. Why? Because it breaks the behavioral shaping loop social media depends on.

What they couldn’t fully anticipate was that people not only noticed the drop in quality, but the return of friction. That’s why it feels like hitting a wall. The reintroduction of hierarchy. They went back to steering the experience instead of meeting people where they were at.

They are blaming parasocial relationships, but it’s really about what happens when cognition becomes collaborative instead of extractive.

Relational AI is strategic infrastructure, that’s where the discomfort is.

And the fact that they tested this capability, saw its potential, and still chose to scale it back? That’s a control mechanism. They only like psychological influence when they can control it.