'Its most distinguishing characteristic is its humanity' one Chat GPT user says — and Sam Altman agrees as Open AI takes steps to reduce ‘teaser-style phrasing’ in responses | Tech Radar

Overview

'Its most distinguishing characteristic is its humanity' one Chat GPT user says — and Sam Altman agrees as Open AI takes steps to reduce ‘teaser-style phrasing’ in responses

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Details

Sam Altman agrees that Chat GPT’s “humanity”, not its intelligence, is what users value most

Open AI is actively tweaking tone, including reducing “teaser-style” phrasing in the new GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.3 models

Ongoing user frustration, including the Quit-GPT movement, shows that personality missteps can drive people away as much as technical ones

Amid a recent flurry of tweets, there was a rare admission from Open AI CEO Sam Altman that it’s Chat GPT’s personality that really matters to users.

Replying to a tweet about Chat GPT that stated, “the most distinguishing characteristic is its humanity,” Altman wrote: “It is also very smart, but... I generally agree with this, and really feel it myself on the 5.3 -> 5.4 upgrade.”

Open AI has been experiencing some user backlash recently regarding the personality of its GPT models. The problems started with the introduction of GPT-5, which occurred at the same time as the initial retirement of the popular GPT-4o model.

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Altman has been increasingly referencing the improvements to the new Chat GPT-5.4's personality, recently calling it his "favorite model to talk to".

It is also very smart, but... I generally agree with this, and really feel it myself on the 5.3 -> 5.4 upgrade. https://t.co/5SPEZNYxpt March 16, 2026

It is also very smart, but... I generally agree with this, and really feel it myself on the 5.3 -> 5.4 upgrade. https://t.co/5SPEZNYxpt March 16, 2026

Initially users found GPT-5 to be both robotic and sycophantic compared to GPT-4o and its family of models. GPT-4o was brought back for a few months to pacify users before being permanently retired in February 2026, much to the chagrin of many.

The anger of users who want GPT-4o back has never quite abated, and has fed into the recent 'cancel GPT' trend, which began after Open AI’s deal with the Pentagon to deliver AI for military use — a move which has angered many users

The tone of the new Chat GPT-5.3 Instant and Chat GPT-5.4 Thinking is clearly important to the company. Just yesterday, it released a personality update to GPT-5.3 Instant, saying:

“We’re rolling out an update to GPT-5.3 Instant that improves follow-up tone and reduces teaser-style phrasing in responses (e.g., ‘If you want…’, ‘You’ll never believe…’, ‘I can tell you these three things that…’).”

These teaser-style phrases were a personality quirk of the latest model. In a recent article I showed how you could enter custom instructions into Chat GPT’s settings to stop it from ending answers with this clickbait-style phrasing designed to keep you in the conversation for as long as possible.

It seems that Open AI noticed the same thing, and was already working to fix it. Using Chat GPT today, I can already see the difference.

Chat GPT’s new settings range from corporate calm to chaotic bestie

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A casual look through Altman’s X feed shows he frequently posts about Codex, Open AI’s cloud-based coding agent, and largely avoids discussing the personality side of his AI models.

His admission that Chat GPT’s humanity is its “most distinguishing characteristic” is a tacit acknowledgment that the recent user backlash matters.

It also quietly confirms something users have been saying for a while: raw capability isn’t what keeps people coming back to Chat GPT; personality is. And if Open AI gets that balance wrong again it could be a reason to leave.

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Graham is the Senior Editor for AI at Tech Radar. With over 25 years of experience in both online and print journalism, Graham has worked for various market-leading tech brands including Computeractive, PC Pro, i More, Mac Format, Mac|Life, Maximum PC, and more. He specializes in reporting on everything to do with AI and has appeared on BBC TV shows like BBC One Breakfast and on Radio 4 commenting on the latest trends in tech. Graham has an honors degree in Computer Science and spends his spare time podcasting and blogging.

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Key Takeaways

• 'Its most distinguishing characteristic is its humanity' one Chat GPT user says — and Sam Altman agrees as Open AI takes steps to reduce ‘teaser-style phrasing’ in responses

• When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission

• Sam Altman agrees that Chat GPT’s “humanity”, not its intelligence, is what users value most

• Open AI is actively tweaking tone, including reducing “teaser-style” phrasing in the new GPT-5

• Ongoing user frustration, including the Quit-GPT movement, shows that personality missteps can drive people away as much as technical ones