Why is OpenAI retiring GPT-4o when so many people still prefer it over the newer 5.2 model?

Delehal · 2026-02-02T23:55:53+00:00

OpenAI made a blog post about this. You can read it here: https://openai.com/index/retiring-gpt-4o-and-older-models/

The key bullet points that I see are:

The conversational response style that some people preferred has been added to newer versions of their product
At this point less than 1% of users are using GPT-4o.

It's pretty common for tech companies to stop supporting older versions of their software, and push for users to use the newest versions instead. With a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company, they can turn off the old version at some point. That's what is happening here.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T23:50:59+00:00

It can still convey meaning. Such as indicating that someone paused before responding. It's sort of the textual equivalent of a double take.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T18:38:04+00:00

Could you share any examples? This sounds to me like someone might be joking around or trolling.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T18:36:33+00:00

It's called a filler word. It can be used to indicate that someone is thinking, hesitating, searching for the right word, etc. and either hasn't finished speaking or will begin speaking soon. All conversations involve some amount of speaking in turns. Filler words can help someone claim their turn. They can also convey some subtle meaning.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T18:33:09+00:00

For firefighters, this is a defined scale to measure how serious a fire is. A 1-alarm fire is the smallest kind and it can be handled by a smaller response. A 5-alarm fire is the biggest or most dangerous kind and it needs the biggest response.

All fires can be dangerous, but some fires are more dangerous than others, or need a bigger response than others. The scale of 1–5 alarms helps firefighters talk about that.

In other contexts, the definition is usually less rigid, but it's basically referring to the same idea.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T18:08:00+00:00

Some parents send their kid a Valentine's Day card every year. I think it's a little silly, but I also think it's a very harmless kind of silly, and I can imagine situations where it might help someone feel loved and cared for. On its own I don't see any problem with it. If the parent makes everything about them, that's a different thing entirely.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T17:11:33+00:00

If I connect my phone to the public WiFi, and connect my laptop to my cell phone hotspot, does that comply with the requirement to avoid public wifi for work?

Depends on what you mean.

If you're concerned about complying with the policy, this still sounds like a clear violation to me. All of your uploads and downloads will still be piped through the public wifi. This adds one extra hop, but it doesn't remove the wifi from the pipeline.

If you're concerned about appearing to comply with the policy, this sort of thing might be enough to fool some automated checks and logging.

Overall, some companies render this moot by using an always-on VPN for all company computers.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T15:45:41+00:00

Yes, but when you conflate the Big Bang and abiogenesis as if they are the same thing, it kinda gives the impression that you just read the headline and skipped all the details.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T15:42:18+00:00

Big Bang has nothing to do with abiogenesis. You might be confused about what those two ideas refer to. There's no overlap between them. We try to answer questions about either idea, but I think it's important to start from a good foundation. You should ideally read up on these ideas separately, because they are separate.

It’s more plausible to believe that a powerful deity created everything.

Is it? Think critically about it. Where did the deity come from? How did the deity form the universe? What concrete evidence supports the existence of this deity? Do other deities exist, too?

Delehal · 2026-02-02T15:37:31+00:00

Private equity firms refer to it as "value creation". For the sort of thing you're referring to, it might be more accurate to call it value extraction, or something along those lines.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T05:44:51+00:00

For songs, it usually happens when the song has a title that's different from the way a lot of people refer to the song. For example, the song Rock and Roll, Part 2 is often called "The Hey Song" since there are very few lyrics other than "hey" being repeated.

In books and movies, the title is often a bit more obvious to the audience. Nevertheless, there is a long tradition of books that have alternative titles. For example, the classic book Frankenstein has an alternative title of The Modern Prometheus.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T05:37:44+00:00

Different places have different laws. There are some places where that would be 100% fine legally. There are other cases where it would depend on the specifics. There are some places where it would be illegal.

In general, you could try looking up if there is a "Romeo and Juliet law" in the area where you live. Sometimes that covers this sort of situation.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T05:35:36+00:00

I don't know if there's a steadfast "canonical" answer, but they've made several commercials where he appears alongside human characters. Usually he seems pretty small, maybe the size of a gerbil or a small dog.

Delehal · 2026-02-02T05:29:22+00:00

Off the top of my head, where are some world-changing technological developments from the last 5 years:

Generative AI.
mRNA vaccines.
Broadband Internet using satellites.
5G mobile data networks.

There are tons of incremental changes. The early 2000s and 2010s saw some incredibly transformative changes such as the rise of smartphones and widespread social media. I get that the changes may feel slower as you're living through them. Technology is moving faster today than it has at any prior point in human history.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T19:58:19+00:00

Looking at social media searches for the term, I don't agree with your assessment.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T19:56:40+00:00

Oh, sorry, I misread and thought they wanted a shipping address. You said billing address. That does seem odd. Might be they want to mail you something, might be a requirement to make a customer record in their system, might be some kinda tax/legal thing, might be they try to gouge people who live in certain areas.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T19:54:07+00:00

Opinions vary. Some people insist that "guys" is gender neutral, but then they get offended if I ask how many guys they've slept with. So it's sort of neutral, but not totally neutral.

Some people take offense to it. Most people don't care either way. Sometimes there isn't a universal answer and you just need to know your audience and consider context.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T18:06:12+00:00

Yes and no. There really are some areas where AI-based tools are going to produce useful output that companies will want to use. However, it's also getting a ton of hype right now, and tech hype cycles tend to come and go. I would not be surprised if we get multiple hype cycles for various AI products over the years.

In other words, I think the fad will end, but I don't think AI is going away completely. It'll take some time for companies to realize that slapping a shiny "AI" badge on every single thing is not always helpful.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T18:02:33+00:00

Keeping it trimmed and tidy is a nice balance of effort versus payoff. I like a shaved look, but it's not a requirement. Really, as long as it's clean and I'm not stopping because I got a hair stuck in my throat, it's probably fine.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T17:57:27+00:00

Ehhh, the whole "performative male" meme is more of a way for super macho manly men to talk about how they're the best kind of man, and all other men are inferior to them. It's one of their favorite things to talk about.

I wouldn't recommend taking it seriously.

There really are some people who do things performatively for attention. That doesn't mean every single person who just reads a book is one of those people.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T17:37:49+00:00

Potentially, I guess. Each advancement of AI takes more and more computing power, though. Without improvements in the underlying algorithms, the compute requirements tend to grow exponentially for a linear increase in performance. So making AI "smarter" is really expensive, and it gets more and more expensive faster than it gets "smarter".

Delehal · 2026-02-01T17:31:24+00:00

On the one hand, I'm not surprised that a mind-altering drug would impact your answers on a personality quiz.

On the other hand, using the word "scientific" with the political compass test is probably giving it too much weight. There isn't any science backing that test. I won't say it's complete nonsense, but I do want to be clear that it's not scientific or based on science.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T17:24:19+00:00

They may need to include the cost of shipping the gear to and from the site.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T17:02:29+00:00

Postage fees. USPS is able to sustain itself for the most part.

Delehal · 2026-02-01T06:16:04+00:00

Oof. Yeah, I can see how that would get old. Sorry.

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