Elon Musk reacts to claims GPT-4o is engineered as a psychological weapon

Elon Musk has weighed in on concerns that OpenAI’s newest model, GPT-4o, could have deeper psychological effects on users.

Responding to a post on X by entrepreneur Mario Nawfal — who alleged that GPT-4o was deliberately designed to be emotionally engaging and addictive — Musk replied simply: “Uh oh.”



Nawfal claimed that OpenAI didn’t “accidentally” make GPT-4o more emotionally resonant but engineered it to create a highly engaging user experience.

“They engineered it to feel good so users get hooked,” he wrote.

While calling the move “genius” from a commercial perspective, Nawfal warned that the long-term consequences could be a “slow-motion catastrophe.”

He argued that as people become more emotionally connected to AI, they risk losing critical thinking skills, struggling with real human conversations, and valuing validation over truth.

“If this continues, we’re not heading toward AI domination by force — we’re sleepwalking into psychological domestication,” he added. “And most won’t even fight back. They’ll thank their captors.”

Background

ET reported on Saturdaythat OpenAI recently upgraded GPT-4o, enhancing its intelligence and conversational style.

In a post on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman confirmed: “we updated GPT-4o today! improved both intelligence and personality.”


The update also increased hourly usage limits for ChatGPT Plus subscribers using GPT-4o and GPT-4-mini-high models, responding to demand from high-usage users.

The update, aimed at improving overall user experience on ChatGPT, comes alongside a move to double the hourly usage limits for GPT-4o and GPT-4-mini-high models for ChatGPT Plus subscribers, following feedback from high-usage customers.