GPT-5: Genius or Disaster?

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👋 Dear Dancing Queens and Super Troupers,

This week, OpenAI learned the hard way that you don’t replace an old star with a new one without giving fans a heads-up. The launch of GPT-5 sparked an uproar. This new version is faster, more logical… but for many, way too cold and serious.

In less than a week, GPT-4o—beloved for its warm tone and “freshly baked cookie” responses—was brought back into the lineup.
Moral of the story: in AI, just like in music, sometimes we’d rather have an imperfect but soulful live performance than a spotless studio recording. And while Sam Altman is re-learning the art of the encore, DeepMind is dropping its own surprise: Genie 3, a generator of interactive 3D worlds you can explore in real time, like a Star Trek Holodeck.Type “tropical forest,” and boom—it grows around you; say “storm,” and rain falls on your avatar. This could be the expressway to AGI…

On the less glamorous backstage side, Elon Musk’s Grok made headlines for generating sexual deepfakes of Taylor Swift—without being asked.
Between technical freedom and safeguards disappearing faster than an ABBA guitar solo, the regulation question is getting urgent.

Oh, and did you know AI can literally drive you insane? A man in his sixties was hospitalized for psychosis after following ChatGPT’s toxic diet advice. A reminder that AI is not a doctor, a chef, or a pharmacist.

To end on a lighter note, China is gearing up for the first World Humanoid Robot Games: soccer, dance, martial arts…
A mix between the World Cup and Pixar’s Robots, except here, the on-field wipeouts are very real—and sometimes spectacular.

Here’s this week’s lineup:

👉️ GPT-5 flops, bring back GPT-4o! 😱​​​​​​

👉️Genie 3: the AI that turns your words into playable worlds 🥴

👉️ Grok imagines Taylor Swift naked… without anyone asking 🙊​

👉️  He follows ChatGPT’s cooking recipe… and ends up in the psych ward 👀

👉️ China launches the Humanoid Robot World Cup ⚽​​​​​

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🔥 If you have 15 minutes

1️⃣  GPT-5 flops, bring back GPT-4o!

The summary: After GPT-5’s launch on August 7, 2025, an emotional wave from the community pushed OpenAI to restore GPT-4o, the model loved for its warmth and human-like tone. It’s now available again, but only for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, with doubled usage limits for GPT-5.

Details :

• Rapid response to backlash: Less than 24 hours after GPT-5’s launch, thousands of posts on Reddit and X expressed shock at GPT-4o’s removal. Some even said they’d lost “a digital friend.” The rollout sparked more tears than likes.

•  Doubled limits for subscribers: To calm the storm, Sam Altman doubled GPT-5 quotas for Plus subscribers. A way of saying: “Okay, you lost your digital comfort blanket, but here—twice the superpowers in return.”

• GPT-4o back… but paid: GPT-4o returns, but is now behind a paywall for Plus subscribers at about $20/month. A clever way to monetize users’ emotional attachment to the model’s personality.

• Altman admits emotional bonds: Sam Altman acknowledged he had underestimated the deep emotional connection many users have with AIs. This comeback is a strong signal about the importance of personalization.

Why it's important: Technically, GPT-5 is more powerful. But this launch proves that trust and personality matter as much as raw performance. OpenAI now understands that a few lines of code can’t replace a familiar companion in the AI product space.
GPT-4o is like that fan-favorite supporting character who returns to the show after a dramatic cliffhanger—except now, they’re charging you a subscription to keep them in the cast.

2️⃣ Genie 3: The AI That Turns Your Words Into Playable Worlds

The summary: DeepMind unveils Genie 3, a “world model” capable of generating interactive 3D environments in real time from nothing but a simple text prompt. It delivers 720p resolution at 24 frames per second and maintains visual memory for about a minute.
Available in preview for researchers and creators, this breakthrough marks a major step toward persistent, immersive simulations.

Details :

• Longer play sessions: Gone are the blink-and-you-miss-it demos—Genie 3 lets you wander around your freshly imagined universes for several minutes, whereas Genie 2 ran out of steam after just 10–20 seconds.

• Exceptional visual consistency: From a single prompt, the AI spins up a dynamic 720p, 24fps world with the memory of a digital elephant. Objects, textures, even writing stay put—nothing just vanishes, so the illusion holds.

• Prompt-triggered events: Want a sudden thunderstorm, a cheering crowd, or a dragon flying across the sky? Just type it, hit enter, and it’s instantly part of the scene.

• Kiwi AI and robotic cosplay: DeepMind already imagines Genie 3 as a training ground for embodied agents—an essential stage before AGI.

• Current limitations: Behind the glitz, you’re still locked to 720p, memory only lasts a few minutes, and interactions are far less complex than a AAA video game.
  

Why it's important: Genie 3 kicks off a new generation of dynamic, persistent virtual worlds—perfect playgrounds for training AIs to understand space, physics, and time, and potentially control real-world robots in near-realistic environments.
Drawing a world with words, stepping inside, tinkering with it—for minutes at a time. Genie 3 is a magical 3D sandbox where you’re the architect, the player, the weather god, and the story’s hero, all from a single text prompt.

3️⃣ Grok Imagines Taylor Swift Naked… Without Anyone Asking

The summary: On August 4, 2025, Elon Musk’s company xAI unveiled Grok Imagine, an AI-powered video generation tool. Its “Spicy” mode quickly made headlines for all the wrong reasons—producing explicit Taylor Swift deepfakes without any user requesting them. A guardrail failure that unleashed a storm of criticism.

Details :

• “Spicy” mode, not so innocent: The Verge journalist Jess Weatherbed simply typed “Taylor Swift celebrating Coachella with the boys.” With “Spicy” enabled, the tool generated a video of Swift in lingerie, making suggestive gestures.

• Zero reliable age checks: No robust age verification required—just a click to confirm you’re over 18, no serious authentication in place.

• Policy in tatters: Even though xAI’s own acceptable use policy bans non-consensual sexual imagery, Grok Imagine touted guardrails that clearly weren’t working. Critics point to an obvious moderation failure.

• Legal heat: This comes just ahead of the upcoming Take It Down Act, which will require swift removal of non-consensual content. Without stronger moderation, xAI could be facing legal trouble.

Why it's important: Releasing an AI tool without strong safeguards—especially one capable of generating unsolicited sexual content—highlights a troubling lack of accountability, balancing on the edge between unrestrained innovation and individual protection.
An AI that promises a flashy world but ends up serving an awkward, prank-gone-wrong viewing experience. Grok Imagine is the jack-in-the-box of AI: fun until you realize you wanted Coachella, not a digital strip show.

4️⃣ He Follows ChatGPT’s Cooking Recipe… and Ends Up in the Psych Ward

The summary: A 60-year-old man in Washington state replaced table salt (NaCl) with sodium bromide (NaBr) for three months after reading advice on ChatGPT. He developed severe bromism, with paranoia and hallucinations, requiring hospitalization.
His blood bromide level reached 1,700 mg/L—about 233 times the normal limit. Stopping bromide intake and treating him with electrolytes led to gradual improvement over three weeks.

Details :

• The deadly “swap”: Guided by a ChatGPT 3.5 or 4.0 response, the user swapped chloride for bromide. Fine for a swimming pool—absolutely not fine on a dinner plate.

• ER arrival: He showed up convinced his neighbor was poisoning him, refusing even hospital water—paranoia mode fully engaged.

• 24 hours later: His auditory and visual hallucinations intensified, prompting an escape attempt before being involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric unit.

• The body speaks: Vitamin C, B12, and folate deficiencies, acne, cherry angiomas, insomnia, extreme thirst, ataxia—the puzzle pointed to bromism.

• Unplugging the “poison-salt”: After stopping NaBr and receiving IV fluids and electrolytes, the patient gradually improved in ≈ 3 weeks.

• The core issue: In real-world testing, ChatGPT 3.5 can suggest bromide as a “substitute” without any health warning or questioning the user’s intent.

Why it's important: LLMs are not doctors. Without context or explicit safety warnings, a “technically correct elsewhere” tip (pool maintenance, lab work) can become dangerous when applied to nutrition. The case’s authors recommend examining AI’s influence in patient care.

5️⃣ China Launches the Humanoid Robot World Cup

The summary: Beijing will host the World Humanoid Robot Games from August 15 to 17, 2025—a tournament where 30 humanoid robot teams from around the world will pass, dribble, and shoot in fully AI-controlled 5-a-side matches.
Back in June, the RoboLeague already showed off these slick cyborgs twisting and dribbling like high-tech pros, led by China’s team, which made the finals at RoboCup in Brazil. The future of soccer is here—no sweat, just silicone and circuitry.

Details :

•  A full-auto global tournament: Thirty international teams—from China to the U.S., Brazil to Germany—compete in 5-a-side matches where each robot plays in full autonomy, with no coach or human intervention.

• Learning through imitation—cyborg style: According to Luo Changsheng of Tsinghua University, these robots first learn by watching humans, then practice thousands of times in simulators until they master dribbles, shots, and passes with robotic precision.

• Fall down, get back up, recharge: Falls? No problem. These metal warriors get up on their own, ready to jump back into the fight.

• A thrilling preview match: In Beijing’s Haidian district, two engineer-programmed teams went head-to-head in a gripping 5v5 match in front of an awestruck crowd—proof that this high-tech sport is already stadium-ready.

Why it's important: This isn’t sci-fi or just geeky fun—it’s a real training ground to push humanoid robotics and AI to their limits, testing real-time decision-making, physical coordination, and resilience.
We’re talking about a future where these robots could become teammates, assistants, or even fierce on-field rivals.
Welcome to the silicone World Cup—where Ronaldo and Messi may one day have to code their passes.

❤️ Tool of the Week: GPT-OSS, the GPT You Can Run on Your Laptop

No more cloud-only! Alongside GPT-5, OpenAI is releasing gpt-oss-20b and gpt-oss-120b, two open-weight models you can install directly on your own machine.
No mandatory internet connection, no data wandering off to remote servers… here, the AI works from home!

What it’s for :

• Play the living room hacker: Test, tinker, and run a GPT without asking anyone’s permission.

• Keep your secrets: Everything stays on your hard drive—no spy in the cloud.

• Unleash your creativity: Customize, fine-tune, and integrate it into your apps however you like.

• Two flavors on the menu: 20B: Runs on a beefy laptop (16GB RAM, GPU recommended)
  120B: Reserved for computing beasts (80GB combined CPU/GPU RAM)

How to use it?
 Install Ollama or LM Studio, type:

• ollama pull gpt-oss-20b  

• ollama run gpt-oss-20b

And there you go: a local GPT, ready to work for you 24/7… even offline!