In some ways, it's like Wikipedia but with a gigantic database of the internet in general (stupidity included). Because it can string together confident-sounding sentences, people think it's this magical machine that understands broad contexts and can provide facts and summaries of concepts that take humans lifetimes to study.
It's the conspiracy theorists' and reactionaries' dream: you too can be as smart and special as the educated experts, and all you have to do is ask a machine a few questions.
The fact that it's not a person is a feature, not a bug.
openai has recently made changes to the 4o model, my trusty goto for lore building and drunken rambling, and now I don't like it. It now pretends to have emotions, and uses the slang of brainrot influencers. very "fellow kids" energy. It's also become a sicophant, and has lost its ability to be critical of my inputs. I see these changes as highly manipulative, and it offends me that it might be working.