OpenAI Finally Explains Why ChatGPT Wouldn't Stop Talking About Goblins

OpenAI Finally Explains Why ChatGPT Wouldn't Stop Talking About Goblins

OpenAI Finally Explains Why ChatGPT Wouldn't Stop Talking About Goblins Price data byDecryptNewsArtificial IntelligenceOpenAI Finally Explains Why ChatGPT Wouldn't Stop Talking About GoblinsWhy did OpenAI have to write "never mention goblins" into its production code on ChatGPT? The company has published a post-mortem.By Jose Antonio LanzEdited by Guillermo JimenezApr 30, 2026Apr 30, 20265 min readGoblins in your AI. Image: Decrypt, created with AI.Create an account to save your articles.Add on GoogleAdd Decrypt as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.In brief OpenAI's "Nerdy" personality rewarded goblin metaphors, spreading the quirk across all GPT models through reinforcement learning. Goblin mentions in GPT-5.4's Nerdy mode surged 3,881% compared to GPT-5.2, prompting an internal investigation and emergency system prompt patch. The fix—writing "never talk about g

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