ChatGPT’s assist bot hallucinates a function that does not exist within the app.
Screenshot by Tiernan Ray/ZDNET
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Key findings from ZDNET
- ChatGPT app assist bot hallucinates this system’s options.
- OpenAI at present has no bug reviews on the app, a critical omission.
- Current chats present that the assist bot has turn into extra skilled.
One of many early successes cited by firms in implementing synthetic intelligence within the enterprise is in customer-facing duties similar to buyer assist.
If OpenAI automated buyer assist is the long run, prospects are in for a tricky time.
Additionally: How one can Use ChatGPT: A Newbie’s Information to the Most Common AI Chatbot
OpenAI’s automated assist perform inside its ChatGPT app reveals a shocking lack of understanding of the app’s options, one thing I found once I sought assist with a bug within the app.
(Disclosure: Ziff Davis, ZDNET’s dad or mum firm, filed a lawsuit in April 2025 towards OpenAI, alleging that it violated Ziff Davis’ copyright within the coaching and operation of its AI programs.)
My search started with a bug within the iPad Professional model of ChatGPT App. I used to be utilizing a subscription model of ChatGPT, the Plus model, which I pay for $21.78 per month. After a number of months of utilizing the app with none issues, I out of the blue realized that resizing the app window brought about the app to crash.
A small bug and a nightmarish assist chat
On an 11-inch or 13-inch iPad Professional, operating any model of iOS that may multitask, you possibly can place the ChatGPT app in one in every of 4 potential window sizes, from a really slim window to a barely bigger one much like the cellphone model of the app, to 2 bigger sizes, together with a full-screen window.
I discovered that resizing the window to full display or to the dimensions slightly below it the place a little bit of the house display is seen brought about the app to cease responding fully. No contact features generated any response, and even the app’s interface parts – textual content, borders, immediate discipline – had been stretched as if the app could not replace them to accommodate the change in window dimension.
I used to be in a position to reliably recreate the problem each time I resized the app, and reliably duplicate it on a second iPad Professional.
I went to the assistance part of the app known as Assist Heart, which you will discover in your account data within the backside left nook of the app’s sidebar. Not one of the assist articles helped, so I made a decision to attempt the chat perform that seems within the Assist Heart.
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The automated bot, developed by ChatGPT, steered a number of steps that did not assist, similar to force-quitting the app and reopening it, and deleting the app and putting in it once more from the Apple App Retailer.
After which the assist bot out of the blue began hallucinating about one thing that does not exist within the app.
“Ship suggestions within the app”, was the suggestion. “You may report this bug straight from inside the ChatGPT app (often underneath Account or Assist > Report an Problem/Ship Suggestions). This helps builders get logs and might pace up a repair.”
“Usually”, maybe, however not on this case. There isn’t a a part of the Assist Heart that claims “Report an issue” or “Ship suggestions”. That does not exist.
There’s a perform known as “Report”, which may be chosen inside the present chat, within the menu within the higher proper nook, which isn’t for bug reviews. This perform is for reporting issues within the present chat, similar to “Violence and self-harm” or “criminality”.
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I pointed this out to the bot, who, within the nice tone ChatGPT is known for, admitted that it wasn’t actually a method of reporting bugs. “Thanks for pointing this out – you’re right. The ChatGPT iPad app at present solely lets you report particular person messages or chats.”
(By the way in which, you possibly can view the historical past of your assist chats within the Assist Heart chat window in case you log again into the Assist Heart. It is best to log in earlier than taking part in any assist chats so to retrieve a report of the assist chat later.)
Automated e mail assist was equally unhealthy
I then emailed the assist perform at OpenAI Developer Forumassist@openai.com, and described my downside once more.
In a sequence of automated emails, after describing the problem, the assist perform repeated the identical recommendation because the in-app assist bot, together with telling me to “report this bug straight from inside the ChatGPT app (often underneath Account or Assist > Report an issue/Ship suggestions),” including, “This helps builders get logs and might pace up a repair.”
After I protested, the automated e mail once more admitted the error, saying, “Thanks for pointing that out – you’re right.”
I contacted OpenAI – a human spokesperson – and acquired e mail affirmation that there isn’t any bug reporting perform:
We at present don’t supply a devoted consumer-facing bug reporting portal for the ChatGPT app. Folks can discover troubleshooting steps and methods to share suggestions via our official Assist Heart at help.openai.com.
For security-related points, we’ve a proper bug bounty program via Bugcrowd: https://bugcrowd.com/engagements/openai. You can too give suggestions straight within the product – for instance, dismissing responses that are not useful or reporting conversations that do not meet your expectations. We’re working to make automated assist responses extra correct and efficient. (There’s a “bug bounty” for builders, however this isn’t the identical as bug reviews or function requests by common customers.)
The shortage of bug reviews is shocking as it’s a normal providing in most software program.
Moreover: Even one of the best AI brokers are pissed off by this protocol – what may be executed
The funniest truth is that OpenAI’s bot, presumably educated on the corporate’s huge corpus of improvement paperwork, did not have the precise information in regards to the app’s options.
If that is the state of AI buyer assist, not solely is it not an answer, it additionally makes consumer frustration even worse.
A small glimmer of hope?
In my testing, the unique bug persists within the newest model of the app, model 1.2025.280. By means of experimentation, I’ve discovered that not maximizing the applying window is the one reply.
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Curiously, in my follow-up testing, the app’s assist bot now not hallucinates that I can report a bug. As an alternative, it states upfront that there isn’t any strategy to report a bug within the app and asks for an outline of the issue that may be forwarded to the builders. The bot has lastly realized one thing in regards to the software it’s in.
At the very least that is progress, I suppose.
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