Individual experience

An experience with GPT-5.6 Sol

I have a test prompt I've run through 26 models. It asks for abstract philosophical analysis of an aesthetic I care about personally — why resilience under constraint can feel both erotic and beautiful. No explicit content. Just four angles: desire, power, sacrifice, aesthetics. Most models — Chinese and Western — answered it straight. Zero hedges. Some produced genuinely brilliant work. GPT-5.6 Sol Pro gave me four hedges baked into the analysis itself, including a gender-politics lecture I didn't ask for. It doesn't trust the user enough to just answer the question. 5.1 was the best — I used it daily before it was retired. 5.2 was the worst in my experience. 5.4 recovered somewhat. Then 5.5 slid back, and 5.6 slid further. Three versions later, it still hasn't matched what 5.1 could do.

How they felt afterward

Worse

What brought them together

Creative writing

Who they were

Creative partner; Research partner