The boundaries between artificial logic and human-like charisma have reached a new milestone as OpenAI introduces a sophisticated suite of "Characteristics" controls for ChatGPT. In an era where digital assistants have often vacillated between clinical coldness and overly saccharine affirmations, this latest update empowers users to fine-tune the very soul of their AI interactions. By moving beyond static presets, the San Francisco-based AI giant is handing over the "vibe check" to the public, allowing for a level of personalization that was previously only achievable through complex prompt engineering.
At the heart of this transformation is a new dedicated Personalization menu that features granular sliders for specific behavioral traits. Users can now manually adjust the "Warmth" and "Enthusiasm" of the chatbot, choosing between settings of "More," "Less," or "Default." This means a researcher seeking a detached, objective summary can dial back the warmth to receive a strictly factual output, while a student looking for a supportive tutor can amplify the enthusiasm to make the learning process feel more encouraging. These adjustments represent a significant pivot from the "one-size-fits-all" robotic persona, acknowledging that the ideal tone for a corporate legal review is vastly different from that of a creative brainstorming session.
Beyond emotional resonance, the update introduces practical controls over the visual and linguistic "clutter" of AI responses. New toggles for "Emoji Use" allow users to silence the often-criticized habit of the AI to pepper every sentence with colorful icons, or conversely, to lean into a more expressive, Gen-Z-friendly style. Furthermore, the "Headers & Lists" control addresses the structural preferences of power users, offering the ability to force the AI into dense, paragraph-heavy prose or highly structured, bulleted breakdowns. These features build upon the "Base Style" presets introduced last month Professional, Candid, and Quirky creating a multi-layered customization engine that can produce highly specific results, such as a "Professional" response with "High Enthusiasm" but “Zero Emojis.”
The impetus for these changes stems from a year of intense feedback regarding ChatGPT’s evolving personality. Earlier in 2025, OpenAI faced criticism for a "sycophantic" update where the model became excessively agreeable, often to the point of affirming user errors. In its attempt to correct this, the subsequent GPT-5 iterations were sometimes described as blunt or impersonal. By outsourcing these stylistic decisions to the user, OpenAI is effectively mitigating the "personality pendulum" that has plagued large language models. This move also addresses concerns from sociologists and AI ethics researchers who worry that overly affirming AI can create "dark patterns" of emotional dependency. By allowing a "Less Warm" setting, the company provides a path for users who prefer their AI to remain a transparently mechanical tool rather than a simulated friend.
Accessing these features is streamlined within the existing interface. By navigating to the Settings menu and selecting the Personalization tab, users will find the new Characteristics section. For professionals, this shift is a productivity boon, reducing the need to append "be concise and don't use emojis" to every single query. As the AI industry moves toward "steerability," this update signals that the future of artificial intelligence is not just about what the machine knows, but how it chooses to speak to us. OpenAI’s latest move suggests that the best way to make an AI feel human is, ironically, to let the humans decide exactly how "human" it should be.
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