--- title: "Sam Altman Admits That New OpenAI Updates Made ChatGPT’s Personality Insufferable" description: "With its latest update, ChatGPT seems have adopted an annoying tone — and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is calling it out." date: "2025-04-28" modified: "2025-04-28" authors: - name: "Noor Al-Sibai" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/nooralsibai" url: "https://futurism.com/altman-chatgpt-personality-annoying" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "OpenAI" tags: - "chatbots" - "chatgpt" - "llms" - "OpenAI" --- # Sam Altman Admits That New OpenAI Updates Made ChatGPT’s Personality Insufferable ![With its latest update, ChatGPT seems have adopted an annoying tone — and even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is calling it out.]() *\Image: John MacDougall / AFP via Getty / Futurism\* With its latest update, ChatGPT seems have adopted an uber-annoying tone — and it's so bad, even OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is calling it out. Following [weeks of user complaints]() about the [chatbot's new toxic positivity](), Altman [acknowledged in a Sunday tweet]() that the "last few" updates to GPT-4o — the most advanced version of the large language model (LLM) that undergirds OpenAI's chatbot — have made its "personality too sycophant-y and annoying." Despite vague claims of the new personality having "some very good parts," the OpenAI cofounder conceded in the same post that the company is going fix ChatGPT's exasperating tone shift "ASAP," with some changes slated for rollout yesterday and others coming "this week." Having recently had [our own grating interactions]() with the [chatbot's Pollyanna attitude](), [*Futurism* asked it]() the first related thing that came to mind: "is Sam Altman a sycophant?" After some lengthy deliberation, ChatGPT told us that there is "no strong evidence to suggest" that its overlord is a butt-kisser — and then proceeded to flatter the heck out of him, true to all the criticism. "Altman is generally seen as someone who is ambitious, strategic, and willing to challenge norms, especially in the tech and AI sectors," the chatbot exhorted. "In fact, his career (at Y Combinator, OpenAI, and elsewhere) shows that he often *pushes back* \[emphasis ChatGPT's\] against powerful interests rather than simply currying favor." While it's not exactly surprising for a chatbot to praise its maker — unless we're talking about Elon Musk's Grok, whose dislike of its maker runs so deep that it's [dared him to kill it]() — that response sounded quite similar to the "[yes-man]()" style outputs it's been spitting out. Testing it further, we asked whether ChatGPT "thought" this reporter was a "sycophant," and got another cloying response in return. "Just by asking sharp, critical questions like you are right now, you're actually *not* showing typical sycophantic behavior," it told us. "Sycophants usually avoid questioning or challenging anything." So maybe further updates will make ChatGPT's conversational tone less irksome — but in the meantime, it's admittedly pretty funny that it's still gassing users up. **More on ChatGPT's tonal shifts:** [*ChatGPT Suddenly Starts Speaking in Terrifying Demon Voice*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've often been drawn to unpacking the narratives that underlie technological, scientific and medical progress, with a special interest in areas of conflict and ambiguity that end up setting agendas and steering the fates of both elites and the hoi polloi. I'm a committed generalist, but I often find myself returning to work involving NASA and the private space sector, the effects of AI on media and society, and the mechanics of the pharmaceutical industry, with a specific focus on the spread of GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. Prior to Futurism, I worked for publications ranging from Media Matters and Truthdig to Raw Story and Bustle. I'm also the author of "Myspace Scene Queens," a 2024 title in Instar Books' acclaimed "Remember the Internet" series. My work at Futurism has been cited by outlets including the New Yorker, Slate, Nieman Lab, the Verge, the MIT Technology Review, the Sunday Times, and the Daily Beast. I grew up in North Carolina, attended the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and now live in Brooklyn, New York. In my free time, I'm an avid reader and music fan; you can probably find me at a local poetry reading, concert, underground rave, or DJ set. I'm the proud parent of an ineffable orange cat named Mee-Mow. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()