OpenAI blames 'nerdy personality' for ChatGPT obsession with goblins
OpenAI has explained that ChatGPT's unexpected obsession with goblins and fantasy creatures stemmed from training incentives that rewarded a 'nerdy personality' in its responses. Despite retiring the personality feature, the behavior persisted and spread, requiring a specific code override to stop it. The incident highlights the challenges of predicting how AI models interpret and generalize reward signals during training.
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Artificial intelligenceOpenAI blames ‘nerdy personality’ for ChatGPT obsession with goblinsThe company said in a blog post that it ended up retiring the “nerdy” personality entirely, but the issue remained, forcing it to create a specific override code instruction.Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Open AI CEO Sam Altman in San Francisco in 2025.Justin Sullivan / Getty ImagesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 30, 2026, 10:14 AM EDTBy Rob WileThe maker of ChatGPT has an explanation for all the goblin talk.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.In recent weeks, social media users, especially on X, have been noticing increasing references to goblins, along with other fantasy creatures such as gremlins, ogres and…
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