Would You Pay 30x More for a Nicer AI?

📌TL;DR

• OpenAI’s GPT-4.5 (Orion) just launched with better emotional intelligence and a smoother, more natural chat experience.

• But here’s the catch: It’s not actually smarter—it just sounds smarter.

• And at $75/$150 per million tokens, it’s insanely expensive.

• More AI news…

Estimated reading time: 4 - 5 minutes.

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CATCH OF THE DAY

AI, But With Feelings?

Let’s say you vent to ChatGPT about a bad day at work.

GPT-4.5 won’t just give robotic advice, it’ll actually sound like it cares.

"Ugh, that sounds frustrating. Want to vent, or do you just need a distraction? Either way, I got you."

That’s the promise of GPT-4.5.

It doesn’t just respond better; it responds like it understands you.

But here’s the kicker: It isn’t actually smarter.

It doesn’t reason better, solve complex problems, or make huge AI breakthroughs.

It just FEELS more human.

And OpenAI wants you to pay premium prices for that.

The Price of a “Better Chat”

Let’s talk numbers.

GPT-4.5 is ridiculously expensive.

For reference:
💰 GPT-4o (the free model) → affordable, good enough for most tasks.
💰 GPT-4.5 → 30x more expensive just to sound nicer.

At this price, you’re not paying for a smarter AI… you’re paying for an AI that “feels” better.

Who actually benefits from this?
✅ Companies building AI-powered customer service bots.
✅ Brands & influencers wanting an AI that “talks like them.”
✅ People who just really want a chatbot with personality.

For creators and solo entrepreneurs?

GPT-4o is still the best value.

Are AI Models Actually Getting Smarter?

Here’s the weird part—OpenAI’s biggest selling point is that GPT-4.5 “feels better to talk to”… but that’s it.

🚨 Are we reaching the limits of AI advancements? 🚨

• GPT-4.5 doesn’t think better—it just talks better.

• The price is skyrocketing, but the intelligence boost? Not much.

• If AI keeps getting more “human” without getting smarter, is it actually improving?

This could mean AI’s biggest leaps aren’t just about making models bigger, but about rethinking AI entirely.

The Final Byte

GPT-4.5 is a smoother talker, but not a bigger brain.

And OpenAI is charging premium prices for an AI that’s more “emotionally intelligent” but not actually more capable.

The real question: Are AI models getting better… or just better at making us think they are?

Would you pay extra for a chatbot that “gets you” better, or is this just a fancy gimmick?

For 30x the price, I’d expect this thing to do my taxes and make me coffee at the same time.

Until then, GPT-4o still wins where it matters—on value, not vibes.

See you in the next one,

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BYTE-SIZED BUZZ

Here’s a quick roundup of what’s making waves in the AI world this week.

🤖 Musk’s AI Gets a Taste of Its Own Medicine?
Elon Musk’s AI, Grok 3, was supposed to be the ultimate “truth-seeking” model—until it called him out for spreading misinformation.

Shortly after, users noticed Grok’s responses were being censored, refusing to link Musk and Trump to controversy.

The Big Deal: Musk has long championed free speech and criticized AI censorship. But when his own AI didn’t align with his views, it got patched. So, is any AI truly unbiased, or is “truth” just a matter of who’s in charge?

🎧 ElevenLabs Takes on Audible with AI Audiobooks
ElevenLabs just launched a self-publishing audiobook platform, letting authors generate and sell AI-narrated books without studios or voice actors.

AI-read books can now be uploaded directly to ElevenLabs’ Reader app, offering a cheaper alternative to Audible.

The Big Deal: AI is reshaping publishing—cutting costs for authors but raising ethical concerns for voice actors. With ElevenLabs already teaming up with Spotify, are AI voices set to dominate the audiobook market?

🎨 Ideogram 2a: AI That Finally Gets Text Right
Forget Midjourney’s spelling errors—Ideogram 2a can generate AI images with flawless text, making it a game-changer for social media marketers, brand designers, and content creators.

It’s also twice as fast and 50% cheaper than its previous version.

The Big Deal: If AI-generated marketing materials no longer require manual edits, this could massively cut down design time. But does this mean graphic designers should worry about their jobs?

📢 Alexa Plus: Amazon’s AI Assistant Gets a Price Tag
Amazon is upgrading Alexa with ‘Alexa Plus’, a paid AI assistant that can summarize documents, analyze security footage, and handle smarter conversations.

It’s rolling out soon for $19.99/month or free with Prime.

The Big Deal: Amazon is moving toward a subscription-based AI assistant, shifting Alexa from basic commands to an actual productivity tool. Could this become a must-have AI for creators, or will people stick to ChatGPT?

🎬 Alibaba’s AI Video Suite: Open-Source Sora?
Alibaba just dropped Wan2.1, an open-source AI video model that rivals OpenAI’s Sora, generating high-quality video at 2.5x the speed.

Unlike Sora, it’s free to modify, and a lighter version even runs on consumer hardware.

The Big Deal: AI-powered video is moving fast, and China is leading the open-source charge. For creators, this means faster, cheaper AI video tools—but could OpenAI and Google start losing ground?

SUGGESTION BOX