This is a good change from OpenAI:

We’ll soon begin to route some sensitive conversations—like when our system detects signs of acute distress—to a reasoning model, like GPT‑5-thinking, so it can provide more helpful and beneficial responses, regardless of which model a person first selected.

Essentially, if the model notices the user is having a mental health challenge, it should slow down and use the best reasoning model, just as it would for other hard problems. There will also be new parental controls.

It’s a shame this wasn’t in place earlier. I’m still glad it’s being prioritized now.