ChatGPT is referring to users by their names unprompted, and some find it ‘creepy’
Some chatgpt users have recently noticed a strange phenomenon: Occasionally the chatbot refers to them by name as it reasons due to problems. That was not the standard behavior earlier, and different users claim that Chatgpt calls their names, even though they have never been told what they should call them.
Reviews are mixed. One user, software developer and AI enthusiast Simon WillisonThe function “creepy and unnecessary”. Another developer, Nick Dobos, said He “hated it.” A volatile search of X appears Dozens of users Confused on their care before-Chatgpt’s first name behavior.
“It’s like a teacher keeps calling my name, lol,” wrote a user. “Yes, I don’t like it.”
Does anyone like the thing where O3 uses your name in his mind, in contrast to the creepy and unnecessary to find it creepy and unnecessary? pic.twitter.com/Lyrby6bk6jjjjj
– Simon Willison (@simonw) April 17, 2025
It is not clear when exactly the change happened, or whether it is related to the upgraded “memory” function of chatgpt with which the chatbot can draw on earlier chats to personalize his answers. Some users on X say that chatgpt began to call them with their names, although they had eliminated memory and related personalization settings.
OpenAi did not respond to WAN’s request for comment.
It feels strange to see your own name in the model thoughts. Is there a reason to add that? Will it make it better or just make more mistakes as I did in my Github repos? @Openai O4-mini-high, does that really use in the modified prompt? pic.twitter.com/J1VV7arBX4
– Debasish Pattanayak (@drdebmath) April 16, 2025
In any case, the return illustrates that the Uncanny Valley OpenAi might have trouble overcoming in his efforts to make Chatgpt more “personal” for the people who use it. Last week the CEO of the company, Sam Altman, hinted to AI systems that “get to know you about your life” to “become extremely useful and personalized”. But based on this last reaction wave, not everyone was sold on the idea.
A article Published by the Valens Clinic, an office in Psychiatry in Dubai, can shed some light on the visceral reactions to Chatgpt’s name use. Names transfer intimacy. But when a person – or chatbot, as can be – uses a lot of name, he comes across as non -authentic.
“The use of the name of a person when tackling directly is a powerful strategy for developing relationships,” Valens writes. “It indicates acceptance and admiration. However, undesirable or extravagant use can be considered fake and invasive.”
In a similar spirit, perhaps another reason that many people do not want chatgpt to use their name, is that it feels a hamfist-a awkward attempt to an emotionless bone anthropomorphic. In the same way as most people don’t want their toaster to call them by name, they don’t want chatgpt “pretend” it understands the meaning of a name.
This reporter certainly found it disturbing when O3 in Chatgpt said earlier this week that the investigation did for ‘Kyle’. (From Friday was the change that had apparently returned; O3 called me ‘user’.) It had the opposite of the intended effect – holes in the illusion that the underlying models are slightly more than programmable, synthetic things.
