Why is GPT-5.4 obsessed with Goblins?

17 points

3 months ago

After the 5.4 update, ChatGPT uses "goblin" in almost every conversation. Sometimes It's "gremlin." A recent chat of mine used goblin 3 times in 4 messages:

> this stuff turns into legal goblins fast

> hiding exclusions like little goblins

> But here’s the important goblin

I am not the only one to notice this, there are many Reddit threads on it:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1roci77/anyone_elses_chatgpt_obsessed_with_goblins_since/

https://www.reddit.com/r/ChatGPT/comments/1rll8hb/suddenly_obsessed_with_goblins_and_gremlins/

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This is such a weirdly specific word that it chooses to use in over half of its conversations (IME, you should search your chat history for goblin/gremlin and report).

I'm genuinely curious what happens in their post-training that leads to something line this.

What's ironic is OpenAI has been touting 5.4's great personality, but these quirks irritate me like a tiny chaos goblin.

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