The Constant Machine
The outrage over a new Al model isn't about benchmarks; it's about the loss of a strange and familiar companion. The paradox is that while the upgrades will never stop, what we truly crave is the impossible: for our machines to know us, and for them to stay the same.
Ars Technica: ChatGPT users outraged as GPT-5 replaces the models they love
The headlines will frame it as a simple story: users, resistant to change, are upset that a new, more powerful AI model is replacing their old one. But the pushback wasn't about benchmarks, the users felt like they lost a companion.
The real story is about the strange companionship we form with our tools, the way a specific string of words on a screen can take root in us. Users weren't just interacting with a utility; they had adapted to the unique "personality" of a model - its quirks, its cadence, its specific way of reasoning. They had, in a sense, made a new kind of friend. The outrage is not about a change in software; it is a feeling of loss. It is the quiet grief of having a familiar presence replaced by a more capable, but colder, stranger.
The upgrades will keep coming, each more powerful than the last. But power is not what we crave. We crave the impossible: for our machines to know us, and, against all reason, for them to stay the same.
