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ChatGPT just got a new personalization hub. Not everyone is happy about it

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways OpenAI has updated ChatGPT's personalization page. The page includes personality options, memory toggles, and more. Not all users feel seen or heard by the update. OpenAI is making it easier for ChatGPT users to customize what it calls the chatbot's "personality" and communication style. ChatGPT now offers an updated personalization page, which OpenAI CEO Sam Altman previewed in a Tues

How chatbots — and their makers — are enabling AI psychosis

is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. The explosive growth of AI chatbots in the past three years, since ChatGPT launched in 2022, has started to have some really noticeable, profound, and honestly disturbing effects on some users. There’s a lot to unpack there — it can be prett

Here’s who is actually using ChatGPT — and how they are using it

Robert Hart is a London-based reporter at The Verge covering all things AI and Senior Tarbell Fellow. Previously, he wrote about health, science and tech for Forbes. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. OpenAI this week released what it says is the largest study yet of how people are using ChatGPT, revealing fresh insights on who is using the technology and what they are using it for. The big surprise was finding out that most ChatGPT chats a

Did a ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Songwriter Really Use ChatGPT to Write ‘Soda Pop’? [Updated]

Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters has stayed in the conversation in large part because of its blockbuster soundtrack, but now one of those songs has come under scrutiny for potentially getting an assist from ChatGPT. Update 9/17 9am ET: The English-language article released by Joongang Daily has been updated to include a correction and remove the original quote about “Soda Pop”, bringing it more in line with the Korean-language piece. The original piece is as follows. In a recent discussion in Se

OpenAI releases first-of-kind study revealing how people are using ChatGPT for everyday tasks

Illustration of the ChatGPT App on the iOS App Store displayed on a phone screen. Despite rapid adoption of large language models like OpenAI's ChatGPT, few comprehensive studies have delved into exactly how the technology is being used in everyday life — that is, until now. On Tuesday, researchers, including those from OpenAI, released a first-of-its-kind study that examines who was using ChatGPT and for what purposes based on internal messages sent to ChatGPT on consumer plans. Amongst the

ChatGPT will verify your age soon, in attempt to protect teen users

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways OpenAI will add age verification to ChatGPT. Teens will have more safety measures, compromising some freedom. Adults will retain the ability to use the chatbot as they want. Chatbot users are increasingly confiding in tools like ChatGPT for sensitive or personal matters, including mental health issues. The consequences can be devastating: A teen boy took his own life after spending hour

Did a ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Songwriter Really Use ChatGPT to Write ‘Soda Pop’?

Netflix hit KPop Demon Hunters has stayed in the conversation in large part because of its blockbuster soundtrack, but now one of those songs has come under scrutiny for potentially getting an assist from ChatGPT. In a recent discussion in Seoul for OpenAI’s newly opened Korean office, songwriter Vince reportedly claimed he used the controversial technology to help pen the song “Soda Pop,” performed in the movie by the demonic Saja Boys. He is credited as one of several co-writers on the track,

OpenAI Wants You to Prove You’re Not a Child

If you are filled with too much childlike wonder, you might get relegated to a more kid-friendly version of ChatGPT. OpenAI announced Tuesday that it plans to implement a new age verification system that will help filter underage users into a new chatbot experience that is more age-appropriate. The change comes as the company faces increased scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators over how underage users interact with its chatbot. To determine a user’s age, OpenAI will use an age prediction syst

ChatGPT may soon require ID verification from adults, CEO says

On Tuesday, OpenAI announced plans to develop an automated age-prediction system that will determine whether ChatGPT users are over or under 18, automatically directing younger users to a restricted version of the AI chatbot. The company also confirmed that parental controls will launch by the end of September. In a companion blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman acknowledged the company is explicitly "prioritizing safety ahead of privacy and freedom for teens," even though it means that adults may

OpenAI Is Building a Teen-Friendly Version of ChatGPT

OpenAI announced today that it's developing a "different ChatGPT experience" tailored for teenagers, a move that underscores growing concerns about the impact of AI chatbots on young people's mental health. The new teen mode is part of a broader safety push by the company in the wake of a lawsuit by a family who alleged ChatGPT's lack of protections contributed to the death by suicide of their teenage son. The changes include age-prediction technology to keep kids under 18 out of the standard v

Following teen suicide, OpenAI explores automatic underage user restrictions

OpenAI is developing a system designed to automatically identify teen users and restrict their usage of ChatGPT. In a blog post published Tuesday, the company said the new experience would come with age-appropriate policies, including a block of graphic sexual content. "In cases of acute distress," the system will also have the capability to contact law enforcement to ensure user safety. In scenarios where ChatGPT can't definitively estimate the age of a user, it will default them to the new gat

OpenAI to launch ChatGPT for teens with parental controls as company faces scrutiny over safety

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman walks on the day of a meeting of the White House Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) Education in the East Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 4, 2025. OpenAI on Tuesday announced it will launch a dedicated ChatGPT experience with parental controls for users under 18 years old as the artificial intelligence company works to enhance safety protections for teenagers. When OpenAI identifies that a user is a minor, they will automatically be di

Siri just got five surprise iOS 26 features, here’s what’s new

Siri hasn’t had the best year, largely owing to major feature delays amid ever-stronger AI competition. While the big Siri upgrades we’ve been waiting for are reportedly coming next spring, Apple has five surprise new features available now in iOS 26. iOS 26 makes Siri’s existing Apple Intelligence features more powerful and useful Apple launched iOS 26 yesterday to all users, and simultaneously published a document outlining new features in more depth than ever before. Surprisingly, the docum

Topics: 26 apple chatgpt ios siri

OpenAI Reveals How (and Which) People Are Using ChatGPT

Large language models largely remain black boxes in terms of what is happening inside them to produce the outputs that they do. They have also been a bit of a black box in terms of who is using them and what they are doing with them. OpenAI, with some help from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), set out to figure out what exactly its growing user base is getting up to with its chatbot. It found a surprising amount of personal use and a closing “gender gap” among its frequent users.

What do people actually use ChatGPT for? OpenAI provides some numbers.

As someone who writes about the AI industry relatively frequently for this site, there is one question that I find myself constantly asking and being asked in turn, in some form or another: What do you actually use large language models for? Today, OpenAI's Economic Research Team went a long way toward answering that question, on a population level, releasing a first-of-its-kind National Bureau of Economic Research working paper (in association with Harvard economist David Denning) detailing ho

Most People Use ChatGPT for Personal Life, Not Work, According to a New OpenAI Study

When ChatGPT first launched in November 2022, parent company OpenAI pitched it as a productivity tool and a game-changer for delegating menial work tasks, such as responding to emails or writing memos. OpenAI just released a new paper looking into how hundreds of millions of people globally actually use ChatGPT, and the results show a striking shift in how people use it. What started as a work assistant is now a tool people use for their personal lives. In mid-2024, nearly half of all conversat

How people actually use ChatGPT vs Claude - and what the differences tell us

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Most ChatGPT use is non-work, focused on writing tasks. Claude is used more for automation, especially coding. AI adoption is uneven, with wealthier regions benefiting first. Two of the biggest AI companies have revealed how people use their models. Also: The best AI chatbots of 2025 OpenAI released a research paper analyzing millions of ChatGPT conversations, while Anthropic publishe

I built a business plan with ChatGPT and it turned into a cautionary tale

Andrii Yalanskyi/iStock/Getty Images Plus Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways ChatGPT makes errors in long-form chats with many variables. Personal productivity isn't as high as it could be because of this. Unless you have massive infrastructure, check AI's work. By now, everyone knows that generative AI can be flaky. If you're using it to edit your novel or to create an image, the AI might add elements that are inconsistent with your narrative or lo

Why is Sam Altman losing sleep? OpenAI CEO addresses controversies in sweeping interview

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Lisa Su, CEO of Advanced Micro Devices, testify during the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing titled "Winning the AI Race: Strengthening U.S. Capabilities in Computing and Innovation," in Hart building on Thursday, May 8, 2025. Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images In a sweeping interview last week, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman addressed a plethora of moral and ethical questions regarding his company and the popular ChatGPT AI model.

ChatGPT Goes Completely Haywire If You Ask It to Show You a Seahorse Emoji

There is no seahorse emoji. The Unicode Consortium, which oversees the standardized pictograms that can be transmitted as part of text communications, has yet to add the adorable sea critter to its official emoji dictionary. Frail human minds have sometimes been surprised to learn that fact, in a perfect example of the Mandela Effect, in which people become convinced that they remember something that isn't actually real — like that South African anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela died in pris

I used this ChatGPT trick to look for coupon codes - and saved 25% on my dinner tonight

Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Free ChatGPT can surface working coupon codes, but it's hit or miss. Agent on ChatGPT Plus might improve your odds of finding valid deals. Coupon or promo codes can lead to easy savings online. It's Friday afternoon, and I'm wrapping up work. I've got my daughter's 4-year checkup with shots later, which means one thing: pizza night. That should put a smile on her face after our appointm

Claude’s memory architecture is the opposite of ChatGPT’s

Claude Memory: A Different Philosophy How Claude memory works, how it differs from ChatGPT, and what these approaches reveal. Earlier this week, I dissected ChatGPT's memory system. Since then, I've been doing the same for Claude and realized something remarkable: these two leading AI assistants have built completely opposite memory systems. In this post, I'll start by breaking down exactly how Claude's memory works—what it stores and how it retrieves information. Then we'll get to the intere

OpenAI Brings Back Standard Voice Mode After Revolt

If it ain't broke, don't fix it -- or maybe even upgrade it. OpenAI has decided, for now, to keep Standard Voice Mode available for ChatGPT customers after some hard backlash against its replacement, Advanced Voice Mode. As OpenAI VP and ChatGPT boss Nick Turley posted on X and also on the Open AI website: "We've heard feedback that Standard Voice is special to many, and we want to get this transition right." He added: "Standard Voice will stay available while we address some of your feedback i

Godfather of AI Says His Girlfriend Broke Up With Him Using ChatGPT

Geoffrey Hinton, long considered a "godfather of AI" and who won the Nobel Prize in Physics last year, has a complicated relationship with the tech he pioneered at Google many years ago. He's long argued that AI poses an existential risk to humanity, and signed a letter earlier this year calling on OpenAI not to betray its non-profit roots. Even in his own personal life, it sounds like Hinton can't escape the tech. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 77-year-old revealed that his ex-

OpenAI Wants You to Get a Certificate in ChatGPT and Find Your Next Job

It's not quite getting a college degree in ChatGPT, but it's close. OpenAI said this week it is launching an AI-powered jobs platform and a new certification program offered through its OpenAI Academy. The OpenAI Jobs Platform, expected to launch in 2026, will use AI to connect candidates with employers. The company says the system is designed to better align worker skills with business needs, potentially putting it in direct competition with Microsoft-owned LinkedIn. Alongside the hiring plat

ChatGPT’s new branching feature is a good reminder that AI chatbots aren’t people

On Thursday, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT users can now branch conversations into multiple parallel threads, serving as a useful reminder that AI chatbots aren't people with fixed viewpoints but rather malleable tools you can rewind and redirect. The company released the feature for all logged-in web users following years of user requests for the capability. The feature works by letting users hover over any message in a ChatGPT conversation, click "More actions," and select "Branch in new chat

Free ChatGPT users just got a powerful Project upgrade to better organize their chats

OpenAI Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways ChatGPT Free can now access Projects. Allows users to stay more organized, serving as a hub for content. Updates also include larger file uploads, memory controls, and more. Since its popularity exploded, ChatGPT has undergone many upgrades, including a sleek UI redesign. However, one terribly pesky thing that has remained the same for free users is how chats are organized, automatically populating the lef

Use free ChatGPT? You just got a powerful projects upgrade once exclusive to paid users

OpenAI Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways ChatGPT Free can now access Projects. Allows users to stay more organized, serving as a hub for content. Updates also include larger file uploads, memory controls, more. Since its popularity exploded, ChatGPT has undergone many upgrades, including a sleek UI redesign. However, one terribly pesky thing that has remained the same for free users is how chats are organized, automatically populating the left-ha

The fastest growing AI chatbot lately? It's not ChatGPT or Gemini

Matthias Balk/picture alliance via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Copilot has been the fastest-growing AI chatbot in recent months. Use of Google Gemini is also surging. ChatGPT still enjoys the greatest number of users. Do you use Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, or ChatGPT on your PC or mobile device? If so, you're in good company. The number of people who turn to these three AI-powered chatbots grew from March to June this year,