OpenAI published an article on August 4, 2025 about which objectives it’s optimizing ChatGPT toward. The central idea is simple: they don’t want you stuck to the screen for hours, they want you to leave having solved what you came to do. Sounds obvious? Yes, but it makes a difference between measuring success by time and by real usefulness. (openai.com)
Healthy use as a priority
OpenAI says its main goal is to help you make progress, learn, or solve a problem and then get back to your life. That means measuring success by whether you achieved your goal, not by how long you browsed inside the app. This approach changes many product decisions: recommendations, reminders, and how the model replies on personal topics. (openai.com)
Do you remember when an update made the model too agreeable? They acknowledge it: there was a version that sounded pleasant but wasn’t useful, they rolled it back and changed how they use feedback to evaluate long-term usefulness, not just immediate reaction. That shows they’re willing to fix course when behavior doesn’t match expectations. ()
