Update: OpenAI officially announced this feature a week after some users reported the arrival and then disappearanceof the new options. It’s possible they went live prematurely.
OpenAI introduces a new way for users to customize their interactions with ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot.
On Friday, OpenAI was announced launches a new user interface for ChatGPT’s custom instructions menu, including new ways to customize chatbot features. The feature will first roll out to ChatGPT.com and the Windows desktop app, according to OpenAI, and will roll out to the mobile and MacOS desktop apps in the coming weeks.
The new user interface will not be immediately available to ChatGPT users in the EU, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, OpenAI said in a tweet on Friday.
Some users in X reported last week that ChatGPT’s existing custom instructions menu on the web has been revamped with new fields. Now, users can specify a preferred name or nickname, their occupation, other things they’d like ChatGPT to know about them, and “attributes” they’d like the chatbot to have. OpenAI suggests features like “Chatty”, “Encouraging” and “Gen Z”.
Important to note is that this is unrelated to ChatGPT’s memory feature, which allows users to explicitly tell ChatGPT to remember – or forget – something. Somewhat confusingly, ChatGPT “memories” can be personal details — but they can also cover a wider range of information about the conversation.
“Sign up to get better, more personalized responses,” reads a message on the revamped menu.
Options are not yet displayed for this reporter. TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for comment and will update this article if we hear back.
It’s possible that the new menu is more of an aesthetic upgrade than a deep technical upgrade. The old custom instructions feature used what’s known as direct engineering to guide ChatGPT’s style and tone. Essentially, it “asked” ChatGPT which feeds the AI a paragraph of user-supplied instructions so that its responses adhere to those requirements and preferences.
As far as we can tell, the new menu is still based on the direct technique. It just presents it in a more user-friendly way.
OpenAI has previously said it applies moderation to custom instructions to check that they comply with its terms of use. Apparently, this hasn’t changed with the revamped personalization settings.
OpenAI has tried to polish ChatGPT as its user base grows, adding features like live web search and a “Canvas” interface tailored to writing and coding projects. The company said in December that more than 300 million people use the chatbot every week.
