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ChatGPT is referring to users by their names unprompted, and some find it ‘creepy’
A few ChatGPT users have noticed a strange phenomenon recently: occasionally, the chatbot refers to them by name as it reasons through problems.
It’s not clear when, exactly, the change happened, or whether it’s related to ChatGPT’s upgraded “memory” feature that lets the chatbot draw on past chats to personalize its responses. Last week, the company’s CEO, Sam Altman, hinted at AI systems that “get to know you over your life” to become “extremely useful and personalized.” But judging by this latest wave of reactions, not everyone’s sold on the idea. This reporter certainly found it disquieting when o3 in ChatGPT earlier this week said it was doing research for “Kyle.” (As of Friday, the change seemingly had been reverted; o3 called me “user.”) It had the opposite of the intended effect — poking holes in the illusion that the underlying models are anything more than programmable, synthetic things.
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