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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

#641

Post by engeljohnb »

BeetleB wrote: post #635
engeljohnb wrote: post #107

Seems like people here are pretty negative towards a "conversational" AI chatbot. Chatgpt has a lot of frustrations and ethical concerns, and I hate the sycophancy as much as everyone else, but I don't consider being conversational to be a bad thing. It's just preference I guess. I understand how someone who mostly uses it as a google replacement or programming tool would prefer something terse and efficient. I fall…

> Chatgpt has a lot of frustrations and ethical concerns, and I hate the sycophancy as much as everyone else, but I don't consider being conversational to be a bad thing. But is this realistic conversation? If I say to a human I don't know "I'm feeling stressed and could use some relaxation tips" and he responds with "I’ve got you, Ron" I'd want to reduce my interactions with him. If I ask someone to explain a techni…

Yes, it's true that I have different expectations from a conversation with a computer program than with a real human. Like I said, I don't think of it the same as a friend.

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

#642

Post by dragonwriter »

endymi0n wrote: post #405
TOMDM wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll be honest, I like the way Claude defaults to relentless positivity and affirmation. It is pleasant to talk to. That said I also don't think the sycophancy in LLM's is a positive trend. I don't push back against it because it's not pleasant, I push back against it because I think the 24/7 "You're absolutely right!" machine is deeply unhealthy. Some people are especially susceptible and get one shot by it, some pe…

I hate NOTHING quite the way how Claude jovially and endlessly raves about the 9/10 tasks it "succeeded" at after making them up, while conveniently forgetting to mention it completely and utterly failed at the main task I asked it to do.

That reminds me of the West Wing scene s2e12 "The Drop In" between Leo McGarry (White House Chief of Staff) and President Bartlet discussing a missile defense test:

LEO [hands him some papers] I really think you should know...

BARTLET Yes?

LEO That nine out of ten criterion that the DOD lays down for success in these tests were met.

BARTLET The tenth being?

LEO They missed the target.

BARTLET [with sarcasm] Damn!

LEO Sir!

BARTLET So close.

LEO Mr. President.

BARTLET That tenth one! See, if there were just nine...

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

#643

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".

For what it's worth gpt-5.1 seems to have broken this approach.

Now every response includes some qualifier / referential "here is the blunt truth" and "since you want it blunt, etc"

Feels like regression to me

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

#644

Post by xeckr »

llamasushi wrote: post #91

"Warmer and more conversational" - they're basically admitting GPT-5 was too robotic. The real tell here is splitting into Instant vs Thinking models explicitly. They've given up on the unified model dream and are now routing queries like everyone else (Anthropic's been doing this, Google's Gemini too). Calling it "GPT-5.1 Thinking" instead of o3-mini or whatever is interesting branding. They're trying to make reason…

>GPT-5 was too robotic

It's almost as if... ;)

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

#645

Post by standardly »

GPT-5.1 IS a smarter, more conversational ChatGPT, and I love that you mentioned it - you're really getting down to the heart - to the very essence - of how conversational ChatGPT can be.

Would you like me to write a short, to-the-point HN post to really emphasize how conversational GPT-5.1 can be?

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

#646

Post by golemotron »

dkersten wrote: post #576

I don’t want more conversational, I want more to the point. Less telling me how great my question is, less about being friendly, instead I want more cold, hard, accurate, direct, and factual results. It’s a machine and a tool, not a person and definitely not my friend.

I would go so far as to say that it should be illegal for AI to lull humans into anthropomorphizing them. It would be hard to write an effective law on this, but I think it is doable.

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

#647

Post by guardian5x »

dkersten wrote: post #576

I don’t want more conversational, I want more to the point. Less telling me how great my question is, less about being friendly, instead I want more cold, hard, accurate, direct, and factual results. It’s a machine and a tool, not a person and definitely not my friend.

Well, now you can set it up better like that.

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

#650

Post by infamouscow »

embedding-shape wrote: post #611
svantana wrote: post #458

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's analogous to how politicians nowadays are constantly saying "let me be clear", it drives me nuts.

Another annoyance: "In my honest opinion...". Does that mean that you other times are sharing dishonest opinions? Why would you need to declare that this time you're honest?

This has been a pet peeve of mine for years. I call people out when they say this for the abuse of language and for being a time vampire.
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