Debut of latest ChatGPT update has human overlords worried

By Sue Kientz

Last week on August 7, 2025, OpenAI released its latest update of ChatGPT, “ChatGPT-5.”(1) Each version release has vastly impressed Artificial Intelligence aficionados, but not this one. Granted some improvements were welcomed by those who lauded its Version 4 advances. But others like James Pethokoukis, author of The Conservative Futurist, were shocked that a greater leap in intelligence capabilities was not achieved. (2) Pethokoukis went so far as to wonder if the great expectation of achieving AGI or Artificial General Intelligence was coming soon, or ever. While this sounds like great news to many of us AI novices, as it could mean we won’t be killed by Terminators or overrun and eaten by billions of nanobots, Pethokoukis and others are sounding the alarm because the U.S. economy and probably other countries have been banking on a great AI surge in investments, jobs, and all sorts of income streams. That’s the reason the AI industry is building huge data centers in places like Virginia, Northern California, and Texas, with plans to build many more. If AI doesn’t bring forth the super-intelligence it promised, this conceivably could crash the economy.

If only there was a window into this ChatGPT-5 debut with more clues about what it all means. Actually, there’s a very wide window that has stellar inside information – we can check the astrology chart of this latest ChatGPT debut at noon on August 7, 2025.(3) Doing so seems to validate that there’s reason for concern.

At the debut, the Sun (15 Leo) appears stuck in a briar patch of trouble, represented by a Grand Cross figure,(4) an image powerfully reminiscent of “shouldering one’s cross” like Christ approaching his crucifixion. Specifically, the people running ChatGPT (represented by the Sun) are challenged by a square (90-degree relationship, requires work or you risk even more trouble) to large asteroid Vesta (15 Scorpio), symbol of people working (Vesta) against one’s interests, perhaps the residents who do not want data centers humming loudly behind their homes. On the other side, the Leo Sun is square dwarf planet 2002 TX300 (14 Taurus), small but unusually bright and a dependable marker of journalists, news organizations, and other media outlets.(5) That could be another “enemy” of AI interests, critical news stories about their product. And the final leg of the cross, an opposition (180 degrees) to the largest asteroid, Pallas (15 Aquarius), named for Pallas Athena, the Greek warrior goddess who fights not for spoils or glory, but rectitude and justice. Pallas could be the activists that turn up at new data center construction sites and other AI installations and protest.

There is even more stress going on in the Leo Grand Cross of this software upgrade. Mars (0 Libra) opposite Saturn and Neptune (both at 1 Libra), are positioned to closely and pointedly semisquare (45 degrees) and sesquiquadrate (135 degrees) all the components of the Sun Grand Cross, making for a highly delicate situation for the creators of ChatGPT. There is real anger (Mars) affecting all kinds of people entangled in this AI enterprise: pushback at data-center construction likely has AI stockholders agitated about their capital (Saturn = business; Neptune = uncertainty, worries, scandal), local governments (Saturn) who believed the presence of a data center would generate local tax income might be sweating (Neptune, uncertainty) at voters opposing (Mars) what they hoped would be a financial windfall. And finally, another troubling figure is how Mercury in retrograde(6) (4 Leo) is opposed to Pluto (2 Aquarius) and square to dwarf planet Haumea (1 Scorpio). Pluto and Haumea represent a serious tension (square) between those in power who depend on keeping control (Pluto) and those desperate and motivated to improve their lot (Haumea). This last figure is the most serious, as Pluto and Haumea move very slowly, and Mercury when in backward (retrograde) movement, is also slow; in fact at 4 Leo it’s approaching its normal turnaround to direct motion, so Mercury is about to stand still temporarily. This figure could represent the “slow-down” that AI watchers are alarmed about – Mercury (representative of communication and intelligence) isn’t powerful enough at this point (Pluto) and this could change everything (Haumea) that has been planned by so many and various stakeholders.

Granted, there are other AI companies in the U.S., China, and other countries, who are developing their own AI  products. This could just be a serious snag for OpenAI, the parent company of ChatGPT. Looking at when OpenAI’s ambitious data-center effort, “The Stargate Project,” was announced on January 21, 2025,(7) we find some familiar elements in that chart: Sun (2 Aquarius) conjunct Pluto (1 Aquarius) – the driving force (Sun) is power, or powerful (Pluto) – square Haumea (3 Scorpio), Vesta (6 Scorpio), and Moon (1 Scorpio) – they have significant opponents (Vesta and Haumea, as defined earlier) and people in general (Moon). Sun/Pluto is also semisquare Saturn (16 Pisces) and Venus (18 Pisces) – perhaps money or resource concerns (both Venus) has had business and government (both Saturn) uneasy, as AI consumes a lot of electricity, for one – and sesquiquadrate dwarf planet Orcus (17 Virgo). Orcus stands for legal actions, courts, and desire for order in general. What this tells us is that AI firms have a lot on their plate to deal with, in order to succeed and integrate into human society, if they have challenges like OpenAI and its popular ChatGPT appear to have right now.

Title Image credit: Image described by the author to ChatGPT (https://chatgpt.com/)

Notes and References

1. Robinson, Kylie, “OpenAI Finally Launched GPT-5. Here’s Everything You Need to Know,” WIRED, 7 August 2025, 1 p.m. ET,  https://www.wired.com/story/openais-gpt-5-is-here/
2. Pethokoukis, James, “How ‘Altman’s Pause’ could knock the AI industry off course,” The Washington Post, 13 August 2025, 6:15 a.m. ET, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/08/13/chatgpt-altman-openai-ai-slowdown/
3. News stories on the launch appeared in the afternoon of August 7, so the official announcement was noon or earlier in San Francisco, CA, where ChatGPT’s developer OpenAI is headquartered.
4. Grand Cross: When four planets or clusters of planets lie roughly 90 degrees equidistant from each other in a “cross,” indicative of a life or event of great stress, challenge, or terrible choices.
5. Kientz, Sue, “Dwarf Planet TX300, Celestial Reporter,” NCGR eNews, Issue 341, 9 June 2020, archived at https://moreplutos.com/articles/TX300CelestialReporter-for-NCGR-News-No341-WebVersion.pdf
6. All planets including dwarf planets can appear to move retrograde, or backward in degrees as observed from Earth, due to the position of Earth sometimes moving faster than other bodies, so the other planets seem to drift backwards in the sky. Sun and Moon never appear to move retrograde.
7. “Announcing The Stargate Project,” OpenAI, 21 January 2025, https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

For keywords and example personalities of the new dwarf planets, see “Dwarf Planet Basics,” 6 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/dwarf-planet-basics/

For more details about the angles or relationships between planets, see Lynne Hyde’s “Astrology Basics,” 12 November 2024, ANS, https://astrologynewsservice.com/articles/astrology-basics/