ChatGPT is usually a private {and professional} advisor (with cheap limits), but it surely does not at all times provide you with recommendation the best way you want.
We’re all drawn to various kinds of mentors and specialists, and we every have our communication preferences. It comes all the way down to our personalities and proclivities.
I recognize trustworthy and candid communication delivered kindly. I am additionally tremendous delicate, and I really like phrases of affirmation. However I discover that after I speak to ChatGPT, I’ve to preface my prompts with the directive to “lower the fluff and provides it to me straight.” I do not desire a chatbot pretending to be a pal. That is difficult psychological territory.
As a reminder, this is how to consider chatbots and security. It is a good information on use ChatGPT and hacks to get one of the best solutions. I lined suggestions akin to giving it a job, asking it to play satan’s advocate and utilizing set off phrases. AI fashions are at all times evolving, so take note of new options in updates.
Whereas all the main target is on the prompting, the personalization settings in ChatGPT are the place you possibly can affect the outputs. Let me present you ways.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, CNET’s mum or dad firm, filed a lawsuit in 2025 in opposition to OpenAI, alleging it infringed Ziff Davis copyrights in coaching and working its AI techniques.)
Personalize your ChatGPT expertise
A persona is the fashion and tone ChatGPT makes use of when responding. It does not change what ChatGPT can do, simply how it talks to you. The present mannequin comes with seven personalities along with the default: skilled, pleasant, candid, quirky, environment friendly, nerdy and cynical. These options had been rolled out in November 2025 and can be found on the free plan.
Here is modify ChatGPT’s persona:
- Open ChatGPT and go to Settings.
- Click on on Personalization.
- Select your base fashion, tone and traits.
From right here, you may also customise formatting for ChatGPT’s responses throughout issues like headings, lists and emoji. Further directions may embrace:
- “Hold this to 3 bullets.”
- “Give me the reply first, then particulars.”
- “No emojis.”
- “Add a guidelines.”
If you would like, you possibly can add a most popular nickname (I would not advise this, as a result of ChatGPT is not your pal), your occupation and something you need the mannequin to find out about you.
Insider suggestions from OpenAI
I had the prospect to talk with OpenAI’s Edie Campbell-City, who works on the communications workforce for ChatGPT. She shared the next insider suggestions:
I by no means thought to regulate settings based mostly on my search intention. It is smart, as a result of I would choose an expert tone for work-related queries and a extra candid and direct tone for fertility conversations.
How does ChatGPT’s persona change issues?
For instance, listed here are two completely different solutions to the identical query utilizing completely different settings:
Discussing additional testing and subsequent steps after an early being pregnant loss
Pleasant persona response: Though this was the pleasant setting, it learn the room (most likely referring to previous requests I’ve made about it being candid) and wasn’t too excessive. This was the language it used.
Cynical persona response: I selected cynical and in addition toggled the Heat and Enthusiastic settings to Much less:
I then requested the identical query. Here is the way it responded:
I preferred the way it was very matter-of-fact.
These settings are actually essential to find out about, as a result of ChatGPT’s solutions can skew your pondering on a subject. Hold this in thoughts as you are interacting with AI, as affirmation bias is at all times a priority.
