NewsOpenAI says its GPT-4o update could be ‘uncomfortable, unsettling, and cause distress’The company shared details about the update it had to roll back.The company shared details about the update it had to roll back.by Jay PetersApr 30, 2025, 4:46 PM UTCLinkFacebookThreadsImage: The VergeJay Peters is a news editor covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.OpenAI rolled back a GPT-4o update for ChatGPT that caused the chatbot’s default personality to be “overly flattering or agreeable – often described as sycophantic” and that “sycophantic interactions can be uncomfortable, unsettling, and cause distress,” the company says in a blog post.The company introduced a GPT-4o update last week that included adjustments “aimed at improving the model’s default personality to make it feel more intuitive and effective across a variety of tasks,” according to the post. OpenAI says it starts shaping model behavior first with what’s outlined in its Model Spec and teaches the models how to apply the principles in that spec “by incorporating user signals like thumbs-up / thumbs-down feedback on ChatGPT responses.”But with the rolled-back update, OpenAI says that “we focused too much on short-term feedback, and did not fully account for how users’ interactions with ChatGPT evolve over time.” That meant that “GPT‑4o skewed towards responses that were overly supportive but disingenuous.”RelatedNew ChatGPT ‘glazes too much,’ says Sam AltmanOpenAI designs ChatGPT’s default personality to “reflect our mission and be useful, supportive, and respectful of different values and experience,” the blog post says, but adds that “each of these desirable qualities like attempting to be useful or supportive can have unintended side effects.” The company says that “a single default can’t capture every preference” for its 500 million weekly ChatGPT users.OpenAI will be “taking more steps to realign the model’s behavior,” including “refining core training techniques and system prompts to explicitly steer the model away from sycophancy” and “expanding ways” for users to give feedback. “We also believe users should have more control over how ChatGPT behaves and, to the extent that it is safe and feasible, make adjustments if they don’t agree with the default behavior,” the company says.See More: AINewsOpenAITechMost PopularMost PopularAmazon has no choice but to display tariffs on prices nowSlate Auto confirms where it’ll build its $20,000 TruckNew Starlink subscription drops hardware price to $0Duolingo will replace contract workers with AIThe DJI Phantom is no moreInstallerA weekly newsletter by David Pierce designed to tell you everything you need to download, watch, read, listen to, and explore that fits in The Verge’s universe.Email (required)Sign UpBy submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Advertiser Content FromThis is the title for the native ad
Kia reveals pricing for its first electric PV5 van with UK preorders do sex
Automakers can’t figure out what the hell is going on with Trump’s tariffs do sex
Google’s Play Store lost nearly half its apps do sex
Duolingo said it just doubled its language courses thanks to AI do sex