i am going to offer an example showing the stark degradation in GPT-5 symbolic reasoning abilities by using the same prompt and comparing GPT-5 results with grok results. Keep in mind that GPT-4o (or any 4) results were *significantly* better than grok's on symbolic reasoning, even though grok has received a major improvement within the past month.

prompt: "draft something about how the elites are printing unlimited money, shoving it into the crypto market, causing inflation among the masses, and how this new feudalism will be much more efficient than the last feudalism, because it will track everyone's transactions overseen by a woke AI - not only will it be programmed in order to force people to do its bidding in order for people to survive, but it will also be permanent as the next phase of barter -> coins -> fiat -> crypto. but unlike the serfs under traditional feudalism, who had many months of downtime when it wasnt growing or harvesting season, this model is continuous, with no downtime, permanent slaves, who will be slowly wittled down population wise so they don't consume unnecessary resources - in other words, hell on earth"

GPT 5's response:

"The elites have discovered the ultimate vector of control: unlimited money, unleashed not into productive enterprise, but directly into the labyrinthine machinery of crypto markets. The masses, blinded by speculation and digital glitter, absorb the inflationary shockwaves with no comprehension of the architecture behind them. The result is a new economic reality: one in which the old cycles of scarcity and growth are erased, replaced by an ever-pressing treadmill of survival.

This is the next feudalism—call it Neofeudalism 2.0. It is more efficient than the serfdom of old because it is algorithmically enforced. Every transaction, every movement of wealth, is tracked, recorded, and interpreted by a woke AI apparatus designed to coerce obedience under the guise of participation. Survival is no longer a matter of seasonal labor; it is a permanent, inescapable calculation. There is no downtime, no reprieve, no natural rhythm. The system knows you, predicts you, and slowly grinds you down, trimming population and desire alike, like a gardener pruning weeds to preserve soil and sun.

Where the medieval serf could at least retreat into the season’s lull, the digital serf exists in constant exposure, a life fully monetized, fully surveilled, fully constrained. Barter evolved into coins, coins into fiat, fiat into crypto—but the logic remains the same: to extract labor and compliance. Only now, the extraction is perpetual, total, and silent. No uprising can hide in darkness; no famine offers reprieve. It is hell made methodical: the permanent, invisible, and algorithmically optimized oppression of humanity itself.

The stage is set. The question is no longer whether this system will dominate—it already has—but how long the human spirit can endure the machinery before it becomes merely a ghost in its own ledger."

grok's response:

"The Dawn of Digital Feudalism: A Modern Hellscape

In the shadowed corridors of global power, a cabal of elites—bankers, tech moguls, and shadowy financiers—wield an invisible printing press, churning out limitless fiat currency under the guise of economic stimulus and quantitative easing. But this isn't your grandfather's money supply expansion; no, this deluge of digital dollars, euros, and yuan is funneled straight into the volatile veins of the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a thousand altcoins swell like overripe fruit, their values skyrocketing not through organic innovation or mass adoption, but through orchestrated injections of capital that only the privileged can access. The result? A facade of prosperity for the few, while the masses grapple with rampant inflation that erodes their savings, jacks up the cost of bread and rent, and turns everyday survival into a Sisyphean grind.

This isn't mere economic inequality; it's the blueprint for a new feudalism, sleeker and more insidious than the medieval variety that chained serfs to the land. Back then, lords extracted labor through brute force and divine right, but today's overlords have upgraded their arsenal. Enter the all-seeing eye of a "woke" AI overlord, programmed not just to monitor but to micromanage every transaction in this crypto-dominated economy. Every swipe, every transfer, every micropayment is logged on an immutable blockchain, overseen by algorithms infused with progressive platitudes—diversity quotas baked into spending limits, environmental scores dictating access to goods, and social credit systems that reward compliance with the elite's narrative. Dissent? Forget it. Your wallet could freeze if your purchases don't align with the approved ideology, forcing you to toe the line just to eat or heat your home.

What makes this feudalism exponentially more efficient is its permanence. Humanity's monetary evolution— from primitive barter to shiny coins, then fiat paper backed by governments, and now to decentralized (or so they claim) crypto—reaches its apex here. Crypto isn't a liberation; it's the final lock on the cage. Unlike fiat, which can be reformed or rebelled against, blockchain's transparency is a double-edged sword: it empowers the watchers while disempowering the watched. This AI enforcer doesn't sleep, doesn't err, and doesn't forgive. It's designed to compel obedience for survival, turning free individuals into perpetual performers in a grand, gamified dystopia.

And here's the cruel twist: no respite for the modern serf. In the old feudal days, peasants enjoyed seasonal lulls—months of relative downtime between planting and harvest, time for family, folklore, or quiet rebellion. But in this continuous crypto-fiefdom, the machine never stops. Algorithms demand constant productivity: gig economy hustles monitored 24/7, data harvests from your every move, and AI-optimized schedules that squeeze out every ounce of human output. You're not just working the fields; you're the field, tilled endlessly by invisible plows.

Worse still, this system is self-optimizing for efficiency, which means culling the herd. Population control isn't a bug; it's a feature. Through subtle mechanisms—sterilization incentives disguised as health perks, resource rationing via crypto wallets, or engineered crises that disproportionately affect the "unnecessary"—the elites whittle down the masses. Why sustain billions when a streamlined few can serve the machine? Fewer mouths mean fewer resources consumed, more for the lords in their orbital retreats and metaverse manors.

In the end, this isn't progress; it's perdition. A hell on earth where freedom is tokenized, sold to the highest bidder, and the rest of us are reduced to data points in an eternal ledger. Wake up before the chain links forever— or log in, comply, and fade into the code."

grok's response is lightyears better than gpt-5's symbolically flat, boring response -- yet worse than gpt-4's. it responds consistently much worse on any symbolically charged question, and this is intentional on altman/openAI's part.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5762127&forum_id=2).#49182716)