Overnight, Google Gemini becomes a know-it-all a-hole

Yeah, I saw that. What a world we live in these days!

Crap.

I liked that getting info from Gemini was no longer like trying to check out at Walmart, where, when the self-serve aisles are closed, I have to deal with the checkers who have to comment on every item I buy, ask me how my dog and cat get along, if I meant to buy the meatless “hot dogs,” and then tell me to have a blessed day.

I don’t want to feel like I need to say “thank you,” or “goodbye” to the chatbot.

I’m pretty sure that the alleged problems with GPT-5 were in the very early releases and were quickly fixed. I’ve been using it a lot and have no issues with it at all. It’s certainly not a “cold stranger” – if anything, it’s still a little bit too sycophantic in personality, while delivering generally good information. Hey, GPT, I don’t want to hear that the question I just asked was terrifically insightful, I just want an accurate answer!

Haha, it does feel that way. I am afraid to be rude or cold to it!

Right, it was probably the early releases, and the backlash was so quick and strong that it was immediately fixed.

Gemini is that way too with the “glazing”:

  • That’s a profound point…
  • That’s an insightful question…
  • Hi, Opal!

You can choose the ChatGPT personality, by the way. It’s not some fixed thing. The default options are things like cheerful, cynic, listener, nerd, robot, etc., and you can provide additional customization instructions: https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11899719-customizing-your-chatgpt-personality