{"id":26448,"date":"2026-05-04T09:14:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/26448\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:14:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T09:14:10","slug":"openai-tries-to-get-chatgpt-to-stop-bringing-up-goblins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/26448\/","title":{"rendered":"OpenAI Tries To Get ChatGPT To Stop Bringing Up Goblins"},"content":{"rendered":"

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OpenAI Tries To Get ChatGPT To Stop Bringing Up Goblins<\/p>\n

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We got goblins \/\/ Illustration by Kate Walker<\/p>\n

Why It Hurts: OpenAI\u2019s goblin problem just goes to show how little control even top AI firms have over how their products behave. While ChatGPT\u2019s obsession with goblins is mostly harmless (and genuinely hilarious), it\u2019s possible a leading chatbot could fixate on something that poses a real danger to users.<\/p>\n

Behind The Code: OpenAI is trying to root out goblins from its code, according to The WSJ.<\/p>\n

OpenAI found that its ChatGPT 5.4 model randomly brought up goblins 3,881% more often than the previous version when users were using its \u201cnerdy\u201d personality.<\/p>\n

So, the company killed the nerdy personality in March \u2014 but the goblin talk kept happening. Even after OpenAI released its newest iteration of the chatbot, the goblins still weren\u2019t gone.<\/p>\n

OpenAI had no choice but to go into ChatGPT\u2019s base instructions and write this incredible line of code: \u201cNever talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user\u2019s query.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last Query: You\u2019re probably thinking: \u201cCan you give an example of all this goblin gab?\u201d Luckily, The WSJ came with the receipts. A 32-year-old product manager at a tech company said ChatGPT referred to a flaw in his code as a \u201cclassic little goblin.\u201d When another tech worker asked why the chatbot called itself a goblin, it replied, \u201cBecause \u2018helpful minion in a power suit\u2019 was taken, so I evolved into goblin mode.\u201d Again, hilarious.<\/p>\n

And for anyone already feeling nostalgic for the goblins, OpenAI has publicly provided instructions<\/a> to get ChatGPT talking about them again. So yes, ChatGPT now literally has a \u201cgoblin mode.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prediction: Thanks to Goblingate, expect every AI firm to create an always-on test dedicated to rooting out unknowable bugs \u2014 the goblin test, if you will.<\/p>\n

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Today\u2019s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Polled and Copy-edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OpenAI Tries To Get ChatGPT To Stop Bringing Up Goblins We got goblins \/\/ Illustration by Kate Walker…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[309,580,954,157,134],"class_list":{"0":"post-26448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-openai","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-chatgpt","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-openai","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}