I hesitated to share this because I’m not a typical HN user, but here’s my experience with GPT‑4o…
I’m not a technical user. I studied humanities, and I mostly work in public service. GPT‑4o has been quietly transformative for me in day-to-day life, not because it’s flashy, but because it helps with things I couldn’t ask a person to do over and over again without guilt or shame.
When I experience depressive episodes or social anxiety, I lose the ability to process thoughts clearly or communicate well. GPT‑4o helps me organize my thoughts, write messages with clarity and calm, and prepare myself mentally for difficult conversations. It doesn’t “replace” humans — but it helps me stay connected with the world when I’m at my lowest.
I’ve also used it as a mirror to think more deeply about myself — not in a therapeutic sense, but in a reflective one. I’ve journaled with it, questioned my values with it, and tried to understand parts of myself that otherwise remain buried in noise or self-censorship. It’s strange to say, but the consistent tone and memory helped me build internal continuity, especially during periods when I didn’t feel like “myself.”
To me, this tool has been part cognitive scaffold, part co‑writer, part emotional stabilizer. That’s not just sentimentalism — it affects how well I function. These subtle, personal use cases are rarely seen in blog posts or launch demos, but I hope they are part of the conversation. Especially for those of us outside the US tech bubble, we often don’t get to “vote” except through usage. And when something this impactful quietly disappears, we feel powerless.
I’m not asking to halt progress. Just that, if possible, people making decisions about AI products also hear stories like this — of how these tools don’t just perform, but support.
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