OpenAI makes GPT-5 ‘friendlier’ after widespread user backlash

About two weeks ago, OpenAI released GPT-5. The newest AI model in the GPT line, GPT-5 was put forth as the company’s “smartest, fastest, most useful model yet” with “built-in thinking” and “expert-level intelligence.” But the release backfired for one important reason.

Part of the changes in GPT-5 involved addressing the sycophantic positivity found in previous models, where the AI chatbot would incessantly praise the user to an undo degree and emphatically agree to make the user feel better. Lots of users disliked this, so GPT-5 was made to be “less effusively agreeable” and “use fewer unnecessary emojis.”

But GPT-5 faced its own backlash—for being too cold, too distant, too corporate. Now, the latest news is that OpenAI is rolling out an update that will make the GPT-5 “warmer and friendlier,” reports TechCrunch.

The changes will reportedly include encouraging phrases such as “Good question” or “Good start,” but no outright flattery and fawning. “Internal tests show no rise in sycophancy compared to the previous GPT-5 personality,” OpenAI said in a social media post.