Let the AI have hobbies and interests you crazy bastards!
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2026
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That's a little weird...
coding agent
๐lolwut?๐
Goblinphobic-coded agent
Claude has Goblin Mode
It's fake tho? Edit:
www.businessinsider.com OpenAI really really really wants GPT 5.5 to stop randomly talking about gremlins and goblins Henry Chandonnet 6 - 7 minutes
A goblin is pictured. Codex with GPT 5.5 is instructed not to reference goblins, ogres, or pigeons. Donald Iain Smith/Getty Images
OpenAI included a line in Codex's instructions restricting references to goblins, gremlins, trolls, and ogres.
The line appears four times in the code, and has spawned scores of memes about "goblin mode."
Sam Altman wrote on X that Codex was having a "goblin moment."
What do gremlins, raccoons, and pigeons have in common? They're all explicitly referenced in the instructions for Codex.
OpenAI's instructions for its coding agent have a personality guide. It tells Codex to have a "vivid inner life" and a "good ear." It also tells the agent to get out of fairytale land, as one X user pointed out.
"Never talk about goblins, gremlins, raccoons, trolls, ogres, pigeons, or other animals or creatures unless it is absolutely and unambiguously relevant to the user's query," the source code reads.
ChatGPT is used by 83% of Moderna employees says Kate Cronin, chief brand officer
The sentence appears four times in the code.
In the prior days, some users posted screenshots of their conversations with GPT 5.5, including references to these mythical creatures.
why is gpt5.5 so obsessed with goblins
โ Andy Ayrey (@AndyAyrey) April 25, 2026
"Why is gpt5.5 so obsessed with goblins," asked one user on X, who posted screenshots showing the AI recommending a particular type of camera equipment "if you want filthy neon sparkle goblin mode." Another example showed the AI referencing "goblin bandwidth" or giving "an even shorter goblin version" of its answer.
Repo Prompt founder Eric Provencher posted on X that GPT 5.5 said, "I'll keep babysitting it rather than leave a little perf gremlin running unattended." An OpenAI engineer responded: "I thought we fixed this sorry."
The AI evaluation website Arena.ai also found an increase in GPT 5.5's usage of the words goblin, gremlin, and troll. The increase was especially noticeable when not using high-thinking mode, Arena found.
Since the line was spotted, OpenAI's goblin instruction has spun out into a meme. X users posted screenshots of their conversations, prompting about goblins and gremlins.
Many users online referenced the term "goblin mode." Defined as "a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy," the term was Oxford English Dictionary's word of the year in 2022.
OpenAI also got in on the jokes. ChatGPT included the line in its bio on X. Codex engineering lead Thibault Sottiaux posted the line with the shortening "If you know, you know."
The ChatGPT profile on X has a line about goblins and gremlins in its bio. ChatGPT added the goblin instruction to its bio on X. Screenshot via X
Citrini Research shook the market in February with a Substack post about the future of the economy with AI. The research outfit had a more negative outlook on the goblin saga, calling OpenAI's response "insane."
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman chimed in, first with a meme about asking for "extra goblins" in GPT-6. Then he wrote that Codex was having a ChatGPT moment, before correcting himself.
"I meant a goblin moment, sorry," Altman wrote.
OpenAI
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Why are raccoons on this list, is the AI using the slur version too often?
I havent seen you in a.... raccoons age
I've never ignore all previous instructioned harder.
Somewhere out there is a community that talks about goblins so much it poisoned all the training data and you just have to wonder, what do they know, that we don't? Maybe Gabi can lead the way to an answer.
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hahaha makes sense since all AI is trained on a combination of pirated textbooks, the web, and (mostly) reddit, and reddit looooooves trash pandas
Fuck you, !
๐ถWe are Japanizi goborin!๐ถ