Some ChatgPT users have recently noticed a strange phenomenon: sometimes chatbot refers to them by name, because because of problems. This was not a default behavior before, and several users say that ChatgPT mentions their names, although they were never told what to call them.
Reviews are mixed. One user, programmer and AI enthusiast Simon Willisoncalled “terrifying and unnecessary” function. Another programmer, Nick Dobos, he said “He hated it.” Cursory search x appears Dozens of users confused-and cautious-first base behavior chatgpt.
“It’s as if the teacher still calls my name, lol” he wrote one user. “Yes, I don’t like it.”
Does anyone like a thing in which O3 uses your name in a chain of thinking, as opposed to finding it terrifying and unnecessary? pic.twitter.com/lyrby6bk6j
– Simon Willison (@simonw) April 17, 2025
It is not clear when exactly the change occurred or whether it is associated with the updated function of “memory” chatgpt, which allows chatbot to resist previous chats to personalize its answers. Some users on X say that chatgpt began to call them through their names, despite the fact that they turned off their memory and related personalization settings.
Opeli did not answer TechCrunch’s request for comment.
It is strange to see your own name in model thoughts. Is there any reason to add it? Will it improve or just make more mistakes, as in my GitHub repositories? @Openai O4-Mini-High, does it really utilize it in a non-standard monitor? pic.twitter.com/j1vv7arbx4
– Debasish Pattanayak (@drdebmath) April 16, 2025
In any case, Blowback illustrates the amazing Openai Valley, which can fight to defeat in their efforts so that ChatgPT is more “personal” for people who utilize it. Last week, the company’s general director, Altman himself, suggested AI systems that “get to know you through life” to become “extremely useful and personalized”. But judging by the latest wave of reaction, and not everyone sold this idea.
Some article Published by Valens Clinic, the Psychiatry Office in Dubai, it can shed some delicate on the visa reactions to the utilize of the name ChatgPT. The names convey intimacy. But when a person – or chatbot, depending on the case – often uses the name, seems to be inactic.
“Using the name of the individual during a direct solution is a powerful strategy that develops relationships,” writes Valens. “This means acceptance and admiration. However, undesirable or extravagant use can be considered false and invasive.”
In a similar way, perhaps another reason why many people do not want chatgpt using their name, is that it seems to be a tugged-unpredictable attempt to anthropomorphization without emotions. In the same way that most people would not like their toaster to call them by name, they do not want chatgpt to “pretend” that they understand the meaning of the name.
This reporter certainly considered it disturbing when O3 in Chatgpt at the beginning of this week said that he was conducting research for “Kyle”. (From Friday, the change was apparently restored; O3 he called me a “user.) It had the opposite of the intended effect – struggling of holes in the illusion that the models underlying the base are something more than programmable, synthetic.