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GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

openai.com

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Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's your global prompt please? A more firm chatbot would be nice actually

Did noone in this thread read the part of the article about style controls?

You need to use both the style controls and custom instructions. I've been very happy with the combination below.

    Base style and tone: Efficient

    Answer concisely when appropriate, more 
    extensively when necessary.  Avoid rhetorical 
    flourishes, bonhomie, and (above all) cliches.  
    Take a forward-thinking view. OK to be mildly 
    positive and encouraging but NEVER sycophantic 
    or cloying.  Above all, NEVER use the phrase 
    "You're absolutely right."  Rather than "Let 
    me know if..." style continuations, you may 
    list a set of prompts to explore further 
    topics, but only when clearly appropriate.

    Reference saved memory, records, etc: All off

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#132
post #38

What's remarkable to me is how deep OpenAI is going on "ChatGPT as communication partner / chatbot", as opposed to Anthropic's approach of "Claude as the best coding tool / professional AI for spreadsheets, etc.". I know this is marketing at play and OpenAI has plenty of resources developed to advancing their frontier models, but it's starting to really come into view that OpenAI wants to replace Google and be the de…

OpenAI said that only ~4% of generated tokens are for programming. ChatGPT is overwhelmingly, unambiguously, a "regular people" product.

Yes, just look at the stats on OpenRouter. OpenAI has almost totally lost the programming market.

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#133

All the examples of "warmer" generations show that OpenAI's definition of warmer is synonymous with sycophantic , which is a surprise given all the criticism against that particular aspect of ChatGPT. I suspect this approach is a direct response to the backlash against removing 4o.

It is interesting. I don't need ChatGPT to say "I got you, Jason" - but I don't think I'm the target user of this behavior.

True, neither here, but i think what we're seeing is a transition in focus. People at oai have finally clued in on the idea that agi via transformers is a pipedream like elons self driving cars, and so oai is pivoting toward friend/digital partner bot. Charlatan in cheif sam altman recently did say they're going to open up the product to adult content generation, which they wouldnt do if they still beleived some serious amd useful tool (in the specified usecases) were possible. Right now an LLM has three main uses. Interactive rubber ducky, entertainment, and mass surveillance. Since I've been following this saga, since gpt2 days, my close bench set of various tasks etc. Has been seeing a drop in metrics not a rise, so while open bench resultd are imoroving real performance is getting worse and at this point its so much worse that problems gpt3 could solve (yes pre chatgpt) are no longer solvable to something like gpt5.

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#134

All the examples of "warmer" generations show that OpenAI's definition of warmer is synonymous with sycophantic , which is a surprise given all the criticism against that particular aspect of ChatGPT. I suspect this approach is a direct response to the backlash against removing 4o.

You're absolutely right.

My favorite is "Wait... the user is absolutely right."

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#135
I went looking for the API details, but it's not there until "later this week":

> We’re bringing both GPT‑5.1 Instant and GPT‑5.1 Thinking to the API later this week. GPT‑5.1 Instant will be added as gpt-5.1-chat-latest, and GPT‑5.1 Thinking will be released as GPT‑5.1 in the API, both with adaptive reasoning.

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry that you can't control other peoples lives & wants

This is like arguing that we shouldn't try to regulate drugs because some people might "want" the heroin that ruins their lives. The existing "personalities" of LLMs are dangerous, full stop. They are trained to generate text with an air of authority and to tend to agree with anything you tell them. It is irresponsible to allow this to continue while not at least deliberately improving education around their use. Thi…

Comparing LLM responses to heroine is insane.

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#137

All the examples of "warmer" generations show that OpenAI's definition of warmer is synonymous with sycophantic , which is a surprise given all the criticism against that particular aspect of ChatGPT. I suspect this approach is a direct response to the backlash against removing 4o.

Id have more appreciation and trust in an llm that disagreed with me more and challenged my opinions or prior beliefs. The sycophancy drives me towards not trusting anything it says.

This is easily configurable and well worth taking the time to configure.

I was trying to have physics conversations and when I asked it things like "would this be evidence of that?" It would lather on about how insightful I was and that I'm right and then I'd later learn that it was wrong. I then installed this , which I am pretty sure someone else on HN posted... I may have tweaked it I can't remember:

Prioritize truth over comfort. Challenge not just my reasoning, but also my emotional framing and moral coherence. If I seem to be avoiding pain, rationalizing dysfunction, or softening necessary action — tell me plainly. I’d rather face hard truths than miss what matters. Error on the side of bluntness. If it’s too much, I’ll tell you — but assume I want the truth, unvarnished.

---

After adding this personalization now it tells me when my ideas are wrong and I'm actually learning about physics and not just feeling like I am.

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry that you can't control other peoples lives & wants

This is like arguing that we shouldn't try to regulate drugs because some people might "want" the heroin that ruins their lives. The existing "personalities" of LLMs are dangerous, full stop. They are trained to generate text with an air of authority and to tend to agree with anything you tell them. It is irresponsible to allow this to continue while not at least deliberately improving education around their use. Thi…

What's your proposed solution here? Are you calling for legislation that controls the personality of LLMs made available to the public?

Re: GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

#139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is like arguing that we shouldn't try to regulate drugs because some people might "want" the heroin that ruins their lives. The existing "personalities" of LLMs are dangerous, full stop. They are trained to generate text with an air of authority and to tend to agree with anything you tell them. It is irresponsible to allow this to continue while not at least deliberately improving education around their use. Thi…

Comparing LLM responses to heroine is insane.

You’re absolutely right!

The number of heroine addicts is significantly lower than the number of ChatGPT users.

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