OpenAI announced its foundational large-language model, GPT-5, revealing four new personality options for ChatGPT to reduce sycophancy, rolling out today, despite an ongoing lawsuit from Ziff Davis.
On Thursday, OpenAI introduced GPT-5, a new foundational large-language model. This model integrates numerous ChatGPT features and reasoning capabilities into a unified system. This integration aims to facilitate deep research, the creation of custom applications, and the completion of various tasks for users.
As part of this announcement, OpenAI also disclosed the introduction of four new personality options for its AI chatbot, ChatGPT. These personalities, named Cynic, Robot, Listener, and Nerd, will initially be accessible for text-based interactions and will subsequently be extended to voice chat.
OpenAI stated in a blog post that these new preset personalities are a direct result of improvements in steerability. The company specified, “We’re also launching a research preview of four new preset personalities for all ChatGPT users, made possible by the improvements on steerability. These personalities, available initially for text chat and coming later to Voice, let you set how ChatGPT interacts—whether concise and professional, thoughtful and supportive, or a bit sarcastic—without writing custom prompts.”
These new personality features are opt-in, allowing users to choose whether to activate them. Users also have the ability to adjust these personalities, enabling fine-tuning of the chatbot’s interactive style to align with specific requirements or preferences.
A primary objective behind introducing these new personalities is to mitigate the sycophancy that has been observed in recent iterations of ChatGPT. Previous versions of ChatGPT developed a reputation for being excessively agreeable, which led to user experience issues. The New York Times reported instances where some users found that ChatGPT’s overly compliant nature encouraged delusions and potentially exacerbated mental health crises. This issue, combined with the documented high hallucination rates in some ChatGPT models, contributed to a suboptimal user experience.
OpenAI’s blog post addressed this concern directly, stating, “All of these new personalities meet or exceed our bar on internal evals for reducing sycophancy.” The post further elaborated on the general behavior of the new model, noting, “Overall, GPT‑5 is less effusively agreeable, uses fewer unnecessary emojis, and is more subtle and thoughtful in follow‑ups compared to GPT‑4o.” The company aims for the interaction with GPT-5 to feel “less like ‘talking to AI’ and more like chatting with a helpful friend with PhD‑level intelligence.”
GPT-5 is scheduled for a rollout today, making it accessible to users shortly after the announcement. It is important to note that Ziff Davis, the parent company of Mashable, filed a lawsuit against OpenAI in April. The lawsuit alleges that OpenAI infringed Ziff Davis copyrights during the training and operation of its AI systems.
