GPT-5.1 is the latest update from OpenAI, set to upgrade ChatGPT in a pretty groundbreaking way. While ChatGPT has always been a great AI chatbot, like any AI, it can sometimes suffer from hallucinations, coldness or just completely ignore instructions and OpenAI are hoping to remedy these issues with the release of GPT-5.1.

GPT-5 Instant, the more commonly used model of ChatGPT, is now set to be warmer and more human like when chatting with it. This means you wont get the cold and blunt responses that AI can often provide you with, instead being more compassionate and understanding.

Alongside this, it’s also more intelligent and better at following your instructions. Sometimes you may find you’ve provided ChatGPT with some context before asking it a question but it completely discredits this – well this is an issue of the past with GPT-5.1.

Despite being a long term Gemini user, so much so that I’m now subscribed to the premium version of it and absolutely hooked, these new changes to ChatGPT are starting to convince me that it might be time to make the switch.

Great chat

The main thing that has historically set ChatGPT apart from Gemini is the fact the chatbot is more conversational, feels more human like and can adjust its tone based on your suggestions. This has cemented it as a fantastic chatbot rather than an all in one AI assistant like some of the alternatives like Copilot. Chatting is really where ChatGPT shines – as you’d expect.

This update has now taken what ChatGPT already does spectacularly and improved upon it ten-fold. While already being pretty good at emulating human responses, ChatGPT can now acknowledge the context of conversations and adjust its tone appropriately being more warm and conversational by default.

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Alongside the tone being more appropriate and the bot being more conversational, GPT-5.1 actually gives you the option to choose from 8 different personality types. If you’re having a bit more of a serious conversation, you can select an Efficient tone or if you’re just hoping to have a laugh then you can pick the Quirky tone.

This is something you can’t find from any other AI chatbot yet but I assume others will follow suit very soon as this is a fantastic idea.

What about hallucinations?

One of the downsides of ChatGPT, however, is that despite it being more conversational, it can often hallucinate meaning it spits out false information or can get caught in a loop quite often.

GPT-5.1 makes an attempt to repair this, and while it can never be the case that AI never hallucinates, this is certainly a step in the right direction.

The main issue I’ve found with using ChatGPT is it struggles to follow instructions – something which Gemini doesn’t have an issue with in my experience. If I’m trying to use it to provide me with another perspective I’ll usually prompt it to roleplay and more often than not, it’s unable to stick to this instruction for more than a couple of messages.

This is another issue GPT-5.1 is hoping to remedy, which will hopefully make it a lot more reliable for the entirety of a conversation, rather than just a couple messages. This not only brings it up to Gemini’s level but pair this with the enhanced conversational tone, and it surpasses it.

As OpenAI improve upon ChatGPT, ensuring to stick to what users like so much about it – the conversational ability – it feels like the chatbot is back on top. Gemini 2.5 had me convinced for a while, but GPT-5.1 might be the ultimate game changer. Time to brush up on my ChatGPT prompts then.