r/PoeAI Discussion: Did GLM-5.2 Suddenly “Get Dumber”? — Community Evidence of Quality Differences Across Hosting Platforms

Summary of key content

u/Friendly-Play-1953 posted in r/PoeAI that GLM-5.2 on Poe had consistently worked very well for creative writing, but over the past two or three days it had “lost half its IQ overnight”—even forgetting basic details across posts (the same character was blond in one post and had brown hair in the next), and feeling “like a model from 18 months ago.” The prompts and character cards had not changed at all.

Key information from the comments

• u/jack9556: Asked which provider was being used; said they had not noticed any problems with the Jas-hosted version, and shared Jas's Poe bot link: poe.com/GLM-5.2-JasInTech.

• u/Friendly-Play-1953: Said they were using the official Z.ai-hosted version (custom bots can only select official models).

• u/TheIncarnated (key comment):

"GLM ramped up to release 5.3, they definitely made it dumber on Poe, and removed the ability for it to run tools. I had… This is a necessary excerpt; read the original source for full context. (While preparing for the 5.3 release, GLM was clearly made dumber on Poe, and its tool-use capability was removed; switching to OpenRouter restored normal operation.)

• Emerging community consensus: The same model performs differently across hosting providers (official Poe / Jas / OpenRouter), and quality fluctuations are strongly associated with platform-side configuration or downgrades, rather than necessarily reflecting degradation in the model itself.

Evidence highlights and scope

• What the conclusion points to: Community observations about whether GLM-5.2 has degraded suggest that the hosting channel is the decisive variable (the official Poe endpoint was reportedly downgraded, while Jas and OpenRouter worked normally). There is also speculation (unverified) that the model was intentionally or unintentionally downgraded on the eve of the 5.3 release.

• Limitations: Everything is based on personal experience and speculation; there is no quantitative data (no A/B scores using the same prompts). The time frame is mid-August 2026, around the release of GLM-5.3 (August 14), so the observations may be time-sensitive.

• Use case: A reminder for model selection: when using GLM-5.2 through an aggregator or free endpoint, pay attention to differences between hosting providers and version routing. If quality suddenly drops, switch providers to verify the issue before dismissing the model outright.

Key quotes from the original

"It feels like something changed somewhere very quickly, has anyone else noticed this? Same prompts, same character card… This is a necessary excerpt; read the original source for full context.

"GLM ramped up to release 5.3, they definitely made it dumber on Poe, and removed the ability for it to run tools. I had… This is a necessary excerpt; read the original source for full context.