ChatGPT, the flagship offering of OpenAI, will now allow users to customise its personality and define the way in which it speaks to them in its upcoming updates set to go live in a couple of days.
OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman announced the new settings in a post on X. Users can now alter the AI chatbot's personality, and memories and provide custom instructions on engagement through the settings sections of ChatGPT.
"We have updated ChatGPT's personalisation page: personality configuration, custom instructions, and memories are now all in one place. Going live over the next couple of days," Altman wrote in his post.
We have updated ChatGPT's personalization page: personality configuration, custom instructions, and memories are now all in one place. Going live over the next couple of days. pic.twitter.com/CAeBpP5j12
September 16, 2025According to the screenshot shared by the OpenAI CEO, ChatGPT will now have a dropdown box for various personality types to be chosen for it, with one of them being a 'nerd' option.
These settings will decide the style and tone with which ChatGPT will engage with the user. It also has custom instructions to define further conversational calibration, such as asking it to "avoid millennial jargon".
The options for conversation style also include "encouraging" and "straight shooting", possibly in response to users who criticised ChatGPT to be overly effusive in the unnecessary praise it reportedly showered on users.
There is also an 'About You' section where users can decide what nickname the chatbot can use while referring to the user, along with an 'occupation section' that defines the users' job description to it.
Many 'X' users in the comment section of the post expressed disapproval of the new settings and instead advocated for the restoration of ChatGPT- 4o.
This previous model was seen by some users as more emotionally intelligent, and adept at creative writing and brainstorming ideas, without engaging in the perceived sycophancy that the new model allegedly displayed.
"This is a concerning update. Is this 'personalization' page the Trojan horse you'll use to deprecate GPT-4o? Are you planning to turn our beloved, indispensable model into just another “personality trait” checkbox? We want the real thing, Sam. Not a hollowed-out imitation," one of the X users said.
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