OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has finally admitted that the last couple of updates to GPT-4o (the foundation model running ChatGPT) have made the chatbot ‘too sycophant’ and ‘annoying’, a common complaint among users on social media. The 39-year-old also promised to roll out some fixes today, which will be followed by other fixes later in the week.
“The last couple of GPT-4o updates have made the personality too sycophant-y and annoying (even though there are some very good parts of it), and we are working on fixes asap, some today and some this week. At some point will share our learnings from this, it’s been interesting.” Altman wrote in his X (formerly Twitter) post.
Asked if OpenAI can give users an option to switch to the old personality of ChatGPT, Altman replied, “yeah eventually we clearly need to be able to offer multiple options”.
Notably, just days earlier Altman had posted that OpenAI was rolling out a new update for ChatGPT that gave the chatbot “improved intelligence and personality”.
What was the issue about?
Over the last few days, users on social media realised that ChatGPT had become way too agreeable and responded with positive affirmations to questions almost every single time. While some people found this new ‘personality’ better for connecting with the chatbot, others found it simply annoying.
Another new feat recently was that ChatGPT had started using users’ names, perhaps in a bid to give a more personal touch to conversations — but all it did was remind people on social media of the 2013 apocalyptic movie Her, where a human falls in love with an AI.
“I hate how the latest ChatGPT gaslights its users, every dumb question/suggestion it says you nailed it, i am even afraid to give it a blueprint rather than an open question, bc likely it will say “yes you are a genius” one frustrated user on X wrote about the issue.
“Arguably the bigger issue with the latest ChatGPT personality, beyond sycophancy, is its extreme compulsion to keep you in a content generation loop with FOMO-inducing addiction speak, offering one more option in every exchange like: “Why not play the slot machine one last time?”” Added another user.
