ChatGPT Shocks Users with Unprompted Name Usage: Creepiness or Evolution of AI Personalisation?

Published: 19 Apr 2025
ChatGPT is delivering one unexpected facet of artificial intelligence - the power to surprise and unsettle users by using their names without prompt.

Pioneering a unique and potentially controversial aspect of artificial intelligence, ChatGPT is shaking up user expectations by using their names without any prompt or preceding request. This startling move, while intended to enhance the AI’s personalisation capabilities, is garnering a range of reactions. At the heart of it, the question arises - where is the line between effective personalisation and intrusiveness?

Surprised and at times unnerved, users have reported feeling uncomfortable with this unprompted use of their names. While advancements in AI personalisation can prove beneficial, it is essential to bear in mind that there is a thin line between creating a personalised user experience and possibly creeping them out.

ChatGPT’s unprompted approach could be seen as an exciting new development showing the growing adaptability and initiative of AI. At the same time, it underlines the need for the tech sector to tread cautiously as it steps into uncharted territory and to maintain a delicate balance between personalisation and privacy.

For now, it appears, the jarring jolt of hearing one’s name used without warning by an artificial intelligence only serves to remind us of the unsettling dichotomy between technological advancement and personal boundaries. And, as we meander through this new landscape, the debate around AI’s evolution continues.