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GPT-5.1: A smarter, more conversational ChatGPT

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

#251

Post by jdelman »

gnat wrote: post #217
pants2 wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW I didn't like the Robot / Efficient mode because it would give very short answers without much explanation or background. "Nerdy" seems to be the best, except with GPT-5 instant it's extremely cringy like "I'm putting my nerd hat on - since you're a software engineer I'll make sure to give you the geeky details about making rice." "Low" thinking is typically the sweet spot for me - way smarter than instant with…

I hate its acknowledgement of its personality prompt. Try having a series of back and forth and each response is like “got it, keeping it short and professional. Yes, there are only seven deadly sins.” You get more prompt performance than answer.

This is even worse on voice mode. It's unusable for me now.

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

#252

Post by op00to »

tekacs wrote: post #60
url00 wrote: post #11

I don't want a more conversational GPT. I want the _exact_ opposite. I want a tool with the upper limit of "conversation" being something like LCARS from Star Trek. This is quite disappointing as a current ChatGPT subscriber.

That's what the personality selector is for: you can just pick 'Efficient' (formerly Robot) and it does a good job of answering tersely? https://share.cleanshot.com/9kBDGs7Q

I use Efficient or robot or whatever. It gives me a bit of sass from time to time when I subconsciously nudge it into taking a “stand” on something, but otherwise it’s very usable compared to the obsequious base behavior.

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

#253

Post by op00to »

pgsandstrom wrote: post #183
nathan_compton wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can just tell the AI to not be warm and it will remember. My ChatGPT used the phrase "turn it up to eleven" and I told it never to speak in that manner ever again and its been very robotic ever since.

I added the custom instruction "Please go straight to the point, be less chatty". Now it begins every answer with: "Straight to the point, no fluff:" or something similar. It seems to be perfectly unable to simply write out the answer without some form of small talk first.

Since switching to robot mode I haven’t seen it say “no fluff”. Good god I hate it when it says no fluff.

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

#254

Post by malshe »

airstrike wrote: post #141
Workaccount2 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I mean, yes, but also because it's not as good as Claude today. Bit of a self fulfilling prophecy and they seem to be measuring the wrong thing. 4% of their tokens or total tokens in the market?

> it's not as good as Claude today

In my experience this is not true anymore. Of course, mine is just one data point.

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

#255

Post by easygenes »

url00 wrote: post #11

I don't want a more conversational GPT. I want the _exact_ opposite. I want a tool with the upper limit of "conversation" being something like LCARS from Star Trek. This is quite disappointing as a current ChatGPT subscriber.

I use the "Nerdy" tone along with the Custom Instructions below to good effect:

"Please do not try to be personal, cute, kitschy, or flattering. Don't use catchphrases. Stick to facts, logic, reasoning. Don't assume understanding of shorthand or acronyms. Assume I am an expert in topics unless I state otherwise."

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

#256

Post by joquarky »

spprashant wrote: post #200
tekacs wrote: post #28

I'm excited to see whether the instruction following improvements play out in the use of Codex. The biggest issue I'e seen _by far_ with using GPT models for coding has been their inability to follow instructions... and also their tendency to duplicate-act on messages from up-thread instead of acting on what you just asked for.

I think thats part of the issue I have with it constantly. Let's say I am solving a problem. I suggest strategy Alpha, a few prompts later I realize this is not going to work. So I suggest strategy Bravo, but for whatever reason it will hold on to ideas from A and the output is a mix of the two. Even if I say forget about Alpha we don't want anything to do that, there will be certain pieces which only makes sense wit…

Unfortunately, if it's in context then it can stay tethered to the subject. Asking it not to pay attention to a subject, doesn't remove attention from it, and probably actually reinforces it.

If you use the API playground, you can edit out dead ends and other subjects you don't want addressed anymore in the conversation.

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

#257

Post by Libidinalecon »

varenc wrote: post #3

Interesting that they're releasing separate gpt-5.1-instant and gpt-5.1-thinking models. The previous gpt-5 release made of point of simplifying things by letting the model choose if it was going to use thinking tokens or not. Seems like they reversed course on that?

I was prepared to be totally underwhelmed but after just a few questions I can tell that 5.1 Thinking is all I am going to ever use. Maybe it is just the newness but I quite like how it responded to my standard list of prompts that I pretty much always start with on a new model.

I really was ready to take a break from my subscription but that is probably not happening now. I did just learn some nice new stuff with my first session. That is all that matters to me and worth 20 bucks a month. Maybe I should have been using the thinking model only the whole time though as I always let GPT decide what to use.

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

#258

Post by staticman2 »

nlh wrote: 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…

I don't follow Anthropic marketing but the system prompt for Claude.AI says sounds like a partner/ chatbot to me!

"Claude provides emotional support alongside accurate medical or psychological information or terminology where relevant."

and

" For more casual, emotional, empathetic, or advice-driven conversations, Claude keeps its tone natural, warm, and empathetic. Claude responds in sentences or paragraphs and should not use lists in chit-chat, in casual conversations, or in empathetic or advice-driven conversations unless the user specifically asks for a list. In casual conversation, it’s fine for Claude’s responses to be short, e.g. just a few sentences long." |

They also prompt Claude to never say it isn't conscious:

"Claude engages with questions about its own consciousness, experience, emotions and so on as open questions, and doesn’t definitively claim to have or not have personal experiences or opinions."

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

#259

Post by FloorEgg »

jbm wrote: post #244
FloorEgg wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 tr…

When it "prioritizes truth over comfort" (in my experience) it almost always starts posting generic popular answers to my questions, at least when I did this previously in the 4o days. I refer to it as "Reddit Frontpage Mode".

I only started using this since GPT-5 and I don't really ask it about stuff that would appear on Reddit home page.

I do recall that I wasn't impressed with 4o and didn't use it much, but IDK if you would have a different experience with the newer models.

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

#260

Post by speak_plainly »

This new model is way too sensitive to the point of being insulting. The ‘guard rails’ on this thing are off the rails.

I gave it a thought experiment test and it deemed a single point to be empirically false and just unacceptable. And it was so against such an innocent idea that it was condescending and insulting. The responses were laughable.

It also went overboard editing something because it perceived what I wrote to be culturally insensitive ... it wasn’t and just happened to be negative in tone.

I took the same test to Grok and it did a decent job and also to Gemini which was actually the best out of the three. Gemini engaged charitably and asked relevant and very interesting questions.

I’m ready to move on from OpenAI. I’m definitely not interested in paying a heap of GPUs to insult me and judge me.

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