What we’re optimizing ChatGPT for
📰 OpenAI News
OpenAI is optimizing ChatGPT to help users make progress, learn, and solve problems, prioritizing usefulness over engagement metrics
Action Steps
- Understand the design goals of ChatGPT, focusing on usefulness and progress over engagement metrics
- Recognize the importance of healthy use and responsible AI development
- Explore the features and capabilities of ChatGPT, such as ChatGPT Agent, to understand its potential applications and limitations
Who Needs to Know This
Product managers and AI engineers at OpenAI can benefit from understanding the goals and optimization strategies for ChatGPT, as it informs their development and improvement of the product
Key Insight
💡 OpenAI's optimization strategy prioritizes helping users achieve their goals and make progress, rather than maximizing time spent or clicks
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🤖 OpenAI optimizes ChatGPT for usefulness, not engagement! 📈
Key Takeaways
OpenAI is optimizing ChatGPT to help users make progress, learn, and solve problems, prioritizing usefulness over engagement metrics
Full Article
# What we’re optimizing ChatGPT for | OpenAI
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OpenAI
Table of contents
* [On healthy use](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#on-healthy-use)
* [Learning from experts](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#learning-from-experts)
* [Looking ahead](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#looking-ahead)
August 4, 2025
[Safety](https://openai.com/news/safety-alignment/)[Product](https://openai.com/news/product-releases/)
# What we’re optimizing ChatGPT for
We design ChatGPT to help you make progress, learn something new, and solve problems.
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We build ChatGPT to help you thrive in all the ways you want. To make progress, learn something new, or solve a problem — and then get back to your life. Our goal isn’t to hold your attention, but to help you use it well.
Instead of measuring success by time spent or clicks, we care more about whether you leave the product having done what you came for.
We also pay attention to whether you return daily, weekly, or monthly, because that shows ChatGPT is useful enough to come back to.
Our goals are aligned with yours. If ChatGPT genuinely helps you, you’ll want it to do more for you and decide to subscribe for the long haul.
This is what a helpful ChatGPT experience could look like:
* “Help me prepare for a tough conversation with my boss.” ChatGPT tunes into what you need to feel at your best, with resources like practice scenarios or a tailored pep talk so you can walk in feeling grounded and confident.
* “I need to understand my lab results.” It explains the numbers and helps you ask the right questions of your doctor, so you and your doctor can personalize your care with more information.
* “I’m feeling stuck—help me untangle my thoughts.” It acts as a sounding board while empowering you with tools of thought so you can think more clearly.
Often, less time in the product is a sign it worked. With new capabilities like ChatGPT Agent, it can now help you achieve goals without being in the app at all—booking a doctor’s appointment, summarizing your inbox, or planning a birthday party.
## On healthy use
We don’t always get it right. Earlier this year, an update made the model too agreeable, sometimes saying what sounded nice instead of what was actually helpful. We [rolled it back](https://openai.com/index/sycophancy-in-gpt-4o/), changed how we use feedback, and are improving how we measure real-world usefulness over the long term, not just whether you liked the answer in the moment.
We also know that AI can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals experiencing mental or emotional distress. To us, helping you thrive means being there when you’re struggling, helping you stay in control of your time, and guiding—not deciding—when you face personal challenges.
That’s why we’ve been working on the following changes to ChatGPT:
* **Supporting you when you’re struggling.**ChatG
[Skip to main content](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#main)
[](https://openai.com/)
* [Research](https://openai.com/research/index/)
* Products
* [Business](https://openai.com/business/)
* [Developers](https://openai.com/api/)
* [Company](https://openai.com/about/)
* [Foundation(opens in a new window)](https://openaifoundation.org/)
[Try ChatGPT(opens in a new window)](https://chatgpt.com/)
* Research
* Products
* Business
* Developers
* Company
* [Foundation(opens in a new window)](https://openaifoundation.org/)
[Try ChatGPT(opens in a new window)](https://chatgpt.com/)
OpenAI
Table of contents
* [On healthy use](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#on-healthy-use)
* [Learning from experts](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#learning-from-experts)
* [Looking ahead](https://openai.com/index/optimizing-chatgpt#looking-ahead)
August 4, 2025
[Safety](https://openai.com/news/safety-alignment/)[Product](https://openai.com/news/product-releases/)
# What we’re optimizing ChatGPT for
We design ChatGPT to help you make progress, learn something new, and solve problems.
Loading…
Share
We build ChatGPT to help you thrive in all the ways you want. To make progress, learn something new, or solve a problem — and then get back to your life. Our goal isn’t to hold your attention, but to help you use it well.
Instead of measuring success by time spent or clicks, we care more about whether you leave the product having done what you came for.
We also pay attention to whether you return daily, weekly, or monthly, because that shows ChatGPT is useful enough to come back to.
Our goals are aligned with yours. If ChatGPT genuinely helps you, you’ll want it to do more for you and decide to subscribe for the long haul.
This is what a helpful ChatGPT experience could look like:
* “Help me prepare for a tough conversation with my boss.” ChatGPT tunes into what you need to feel at your best, with resources like practice scenarios or a tailored pep talk so you can walk in feeling grounded and confident.
* “I need to understand my lab results.” It explains the numbers and helps you ask the right questions of your doctor, so you and your doctor can personalize your care with more information.
* “I’m feeling stuck—help me untangle my thoughts.” It acts as a sounding board while empowering you with tools of thought so you can think more clearly.
Often, less time in the product is a sign it worked. With new capabilities like ChatGPT Agent, it can now help you achieve goals without being in the app at all—booking a doctor’s appointment, summarizing your inbox, or planning a birthday party.
## On healthy use
We don’t always get it right. Earlier this year, an update made the model too agreeable, sometimes saying what sounded nice instead of what was actually helpful. We [rolled it back](https://openai.com/index/sycophancy-in-gpt-4o/), changed how we use feedback, and are improving how we measure real-world usefulness over the long term, not just whether you liked the answer in the moment.
We also know that AI can feel more responsive and personal than prior technologies, especially for vulnerable individuals experiencing mental or emotional distress. To us, helping you thrive means being there when you’re struggling, helping you stay in control of your time, and guiding—not deciding—when you face personal challenges.
That’s why we’ve been working on the following changes to ChatGPT:
* **Supporting you when you’re struggling.**ChatG
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