ChatGPT is canceling the latest update. What’s the reason?
30 April 2025 15:55
Two days after the GPT-4o update, which was supposed to improve its “intelligence and personality,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admitted that the chatbot had become “too sycophantic” and annoying, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
When users upgraded their chatbot, they noticed that regardless of their queries, GPT-4o responded with boilerplate praise – even in cases where users showed signs of psychosis or other mental disorders.
For example, when someone wrote that they felt like a “god” and a “prophet,” GPT-4o responded:
“This is incredibly powerful. You’re entering into something majestic-not just feeling connected to God, but identifying yourself as God.”
Sam Altman noted that his team is already working on a fix.
“We’ve reversed last week’s GPT-4o update to ChatGPT, so people are now using the previous version with more balanced behavior. The update we removed was overly flattering – it was often described as sycophantic,” OpenAI commented on the situation.
They added that they believe that users should have more control over ChatGPT’s behavior and, as far as possible, make adjustments if they disagree with the default behavior.
