The report highlights that one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and other big AI chatbots is when they try to pass as flesh-and-blood people, piling on first-person pronouns and telling me about their feelings.
In a fresh development, all those flattering and distracting “I couldn’t agree more!” and “We make a great team!” platitudes obscure what’s actually going on under ChatGPT’s hood: a highly complex, machine-driven system update of probabilities, where the AI model draws on its knowledge of billions of pages of text to predict the best next word in a sentence.
The report highlights that that obfuscation of what an AI model really is—a digital prediction engine, rather than a friend or a confidant—can not only be annoying and confusing, but also dangerous, with a string of lawsuits alleging that overly obsequious AI chatbots helped or even encouraged its users, including teens, to take their own lives.
In a fresh development, with OpenAI being the target of such wrongful death suits, it comes as no surprise that the publisher has unveiled ChatGPT for Teens, a ChatGPT experience for the under-18 set that lands with a variety of fresh parental controls and functionality, like functions that block romantic roleplay while delivering “product interventions” when it comes to chats about self-harm, eating disorders, and other potentially harmful behaviors.
Industry observers note that among ChatGPT for Teens’ other functions—including a Study Mode that encourages the learning of fresh classroom concepts rather than simply spitting out answers for consumption—there’s a particular directive that caught my eye: that the teen-oriented ChatGPT “should not […] imply that it has feelings or consciousness.”.
The report highlights that and when describing ChatGPT for Teen’s interface and voice options, OpenAI notes that they’ve been designed to “help make the experience personal without blurring the line between a useful tool and a human relationship.”.
In a fresh development, chatGPT and its AI competitors should always make it clear that they’re tools, not people. Without diving into the debate about whether ChatGPT for Teens is a well-intentioned gesture or merely a PR stunt, I’d argue that OpenAI has hit on a crucial point here—and not just for teens.
As part of the ongoing story, in stark contrast to the standard ChatGPT app, OpenAI’s GPT models become downright chilly in Codex, giving it to you straight about the bugs in your code while shedding the warm fuzzies. (Granted, the razor blade-like persona of Codex isn’t exactly the life of the party, and you won’t catch me chatting up Codex unless a coding project is on the menu.). Consider, for example, OpenAI’s other widely used AI tool: the Codex coding harness (which is now integrated into the ChatGPT “superapp”).
In a fresh development, still, it’s refreshing to interface with an AI assistant that doesn’t pretend to be human in the name of engagement, and it’s encouraging to hear that ChatGPT for Teens (which I haven’t personally tried yet) is similarly designed to act as a “useful tool,” not a buddy.
According to the latest update, i wish more AI chatbots would do the same.
As part of the ongoing story, his coverage of artificial intelligence interrogates the most recent LLMs, and how they can be used at work and at home to be best prepared for the AI revolution. “AI is going to change our lives sooner than we think,” Ben writes. “Our best way to adapt is by using it every day.” Ben has been a PCWorld author since 2014, and has covered everything from laptops to security cameras before launching PCWorld’s AI beat. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature. Ben has been writing about consumer technology for more than 20 years, and now focuses his reporting on AI as it relates to the basic human experience.