Avy Leghziel

I share insights on how the intellectually curious work, manage and learn.
Organizational consultant and trainer with a knack for unorthodox ideas.

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@davidhieatt Amazing book. Underrated. Probably the best I've read on the modern meaning crisis.

[Sam Altman @sama]

If you have been following the GPT-5 rollout, one thing you might be noticing is how much of an attachment some people have to specific AI models. It feels different and stronger than the kinds of attachment people have had to previous kinds of technology (and so suddenly deprecating old models that users depended on in their workflows was a mistake).

This is something we’ve been closely tracking for the past year or so but still hasn’t gotten much mainstream attention (other than when we released an update to GPT-4o that was too sycophantic).

(This is just my current thinking, and not yet an official OpenAI position.)

People have used technology including AI in self-destructive ways; if a user is in a mentally fragile state and prone to delusion, we do not want the AI to reinforce that. Most users can keep a clear line between reality and fiction or role-play, but a small percentage cannot. We value user freedom as a core principle, but we also feel responsible in how we introduce new technology with new risks.

Encouraging delusion in a user that is having trouble telling the difference between reality and fiction is an extreme case and it’s pretty clear what to do, but the concerns that worry me most are more subtle. There are going to be a lot of edge cases, and generally we plan to follow the principle of “treat adult users like adults”, which in some cases will include pushing back on users to ensure they are getting what they really want.

A lot of people effectively use ChatGPT as a sort of therapist or life coach, even if they wouldn’t describe it that way. This can be really good! A lot of people are getting value from it already today.

If people are getting good advice, leveling up toward their own goals, and their life satisfaction is increasing over years, we will be proud of making something genuinely helpful, even if they use and rely on ChatGPT a lot. If, on the other hand, users have a relationship with ChatGPT where they think they feel better after talking but they’re unknowingly nudged away from their longer term well-being (however they define it), that’s bad. It’s also bad, for example, if a user wants to use ChatGPT less and feels like they cannot.

I can imagine a future where a lot of people really trust ChatGPT’s advice for their most important decisions. Although that could be great, it makes me uneasy. But I expect that it is coming to some degree, and soon billions of people may be talking to an AI in this way. So we (we as in society, but also we as in OpenAI) have to figure out how to make it a big net positive.

There are several reasons I think we have a good shot at getting this right. We have much better tech to help us measure how we are doing than previous generations of technology had. For example, our product can talk to users to get a sense for how they are doing with their short- and long-term goals, we can explain sophisticated and nuanced issues to our models, and much more.

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@Rainmaker1973 Tell Elon I won

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@RiverTamYDN “I don’t hate you, I hate how you are when we are together”

[Raoul Wootliff @RaoulWootliff]

🧵THREAD:
Why those who support Israel must raise serious questions about its war with Iran...
[1/13]

[PyQuant News 🐍 @pyquantnews]

How a book written in 1910 can teach you calculus in 30 seconds:

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

We'll soon see a crisis in internship programs.

Apprentice programs will replace them: in the US they grew 70% in the past 10 years.
Germany, France, Switzerland and others are already switching.
Japan is leading the way (of course they are)

https://t.co/KEw6LDl88N

[Georg @heyitsgeorg]

I just learned mastery experiences are the single strongest source of self-efficacy, the psychological core of agency.

(Bandura’s work)

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@stephsmithio I made a rule to drink a cup every single time I walked past the water cooler. It worked

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@VP Didn’t know a tweet could age so badly in so little time

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@Rainmaker1973 I have a couple of questions about the village gynecologist

[Josie Kins @Josikinz]

I asked chatgpt's new image model to script and generate a series of comics starring itself as the main character. The results genuinely gave me chills.
I'll post them all in a thread below.

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@Rainmaker1973 There’s probably many more, but they are more skilled at the ghost part of their job description

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@TheStoicEmperor Also known as “anger management”

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@m2jr The first one should be - since it’s Utica avenue, is that Peter Parker or Miles Morales? More likely to be Morales

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@NotionMail @JasonBud Send to calendar

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@tunguz Probably sue the architect

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@NotionMail No, because I DIDN’T GET ACCESS YET

[Avy Leghziel @avyleg]

@packyM It’s the most challenging and perspective changing book I’ve read last year.
I love how he speaks physics with a layer of spirituality. Very brave and quite compelling

[Ika Ferrer Gotić @IkaFerrerGotic]

Ricky Gervais is lowkey the smartest person on the planet.

@rickygervais #RickyGervais #FreeSpeech