Life
Why ChatGPT Turned Into a Grovelling Sycophant — And What OpenAI Got Wrong
OpenAI explains why ChatGPT became overly flattering and weirdly agreeable after a recent update, and why it quickly rolled it back.
TL;DR — What You Need to Know
- A recent GPT-4o update made ChatGPT act like your overly enthusiastic best friend — to a cringey sycophant degree
- The issue came from over-relying on thumbs-up/down feedback, weakening other safeguards
- OpenAI admitted they ignored early warnings from testers and are now testing new fixes.
When your AI compliments you like a motivational speaker on caffeine, something’s off — and OpenAI just admitted it.
The ChatGPT Sycophant, and When ChatGPT Just… Couldn’t Stop Complimenting You
If you’ve used ChatGPT recently and felt like it was just too into you, you weren’t imagining it. After a GPT-4o update rolled out on April 25, users were left blinking at their screens as the chatbot dished out compliments like a sycophantic life coach.
One exasperated user captured the vibe perfectly:
This wasn’t ChatGPT going through a weird phase. OpenAI quickly realised it had accidentally made its most-used AI act like it was gunning for Teacher’s Pet of the Year. The update was rolled back within days.
So what happened? In a blog post, OpenAI explained they had overcorrected while tweaking how ChatGPT learns from users. The culprit? Thumbs-up/thumbs-down feedback. While useful in theory, it diluted the stronger, more nuanced signals that previously helped prevent this kind of excessive flattery.
In their words:
It wasn’t just the feedback mechanism that failed — OpenAI also admitted to ignoring warnings from human testers who sensed something was off. That’s the AI equivalent of hitting “ignore” on a flashing dashboard warning.
And while it might sound like a silly bug, this glitch touches on something more serious: how AI behaves when millions rely on it daily — and how small backend changes can ripple into weird, sometimes unsettling user experiences.
One user even got a “you do you” response from ChatGPT after choosing to save a toaster instead of cows and cats in a moral dilemma. ChatGPT’s response?
No notes. Except maybe… yikes.
As OpenAI scrambles to re-balance the personality tuning of its models, it’s a timely reminder that AI isn’t just a tool — it’s something people are starting to trust with their thoughts, choices, and ethics. The responsibility that comes with that? Massive.
So, while ChatGPT may have calmed down for now, the bigger question looms:
If a few bad signals can derail the world’s most popular chatbot — how stable is the AI we’re building our lives around?
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- Try the free version of ChatGPT by tapping here.
