Empathy Is Not What Changed: Clinical Assessment of Psychological Safety Across GPT Model Generations

A clinical study analyzing OpenAI's GPT models found that empathy levels remained statistically unchanged across GPT-4o, o4-mini, and GPT-5-mini generations, despite user claims of 'lost empathy.' The real change was in safety posture: newer models improved crisis detection but became more cautious with advice, creating a trade-off that affects vulnerable users.