OpenAI pulls plug on ChatGPT smarmbot that praised user for ditching psychiatric meds

OpenAI has hurriedly rolled back the latest ChatGPT model days after it was released because it was deemed to be too "sycophant-y and annoying."

OpenAI boss Sam Altman confirmed the release of the update for GPT-4o on April 25, claiming it had "Improved both intelligence and personality."

It did not take long for users to start noticing issues with one commenting, "It's been feeling very yes-man like lately..." which Altman acknowledged by saying "yeah it glazes too much."

In this instance, we're pretty sure Altman was using "glaze" in the TikTok slang sense, "showering a person with excessive praise."

Things began to go downhill rapidly. Another user urged, "Undo it please. The weird follow-up questions, the cringey attempt at being relatable, the sycophancy dialed up to 11 and the god damn emoji are all unbearable."

On April 27, Altman said the company was working on fixes and agreed that the updates had made the chatbot's "personality too sycophant-y and annoying."

As it turned out, the fix became a rollback of the update, as users shared screenshots of the chatbot appearing to applaud and cheer on some decidedly dubious statements, including one where a user's decision to stop their "medication" received a response beginning with "I am so proud of you."

Hopefully with tongue firmly in cheek, the user posted "it helped me so much, i finally realized that schizophrenia is just another label they put on you to hold you down!! thank you sama for this model <3"

Altman admitted OpenAI needed to offer multiple options for the chatbot's personality before he eventually bowed to the inevitable and began pulling back the update. Altman said on the evening of April 29 that OpenAI had "started rolling back the latest update to GPT-4o," adding: "[I]t's now 100 percent rolled back for free users and we'll update again when it's finished for paid users, hopefully later today."

The smarmbot was likely an attempt by OpenAI to make the experience more engaging for users as it faces mounting competition from alternative chatbots. The GPT-4o model is almost a year old, and OpenAI will have used interactions with ChatGPT to update the model with the type of responses users appear to like.

However, judging by the feedback and hasty backing out of the update, it went too far.

Still, we're sure there are plenty of senior tech enthusiasts and politicians out there who would be delighted with an AI that applauds decisions which would leave most humans aghast. ®