AI surprises even its own creators

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.There was once a time when software did as it was told. You used the keyboard to type in input, and the computer complied with an expected output—unless it was in the mood to crash. We’ve been used to this equation for decades.But AI systems are beginning to work differently.

They’re outputting things and ‘behaving’ in ways that are quite unexpected and surprisingly social and human-like. It’s no longer sensible to think of technology, such as AI assistants and agents, as software. Humans are going to have to navigate new territory in which little is as predictable as it once was.GPT 5.5, OpenAI’s new AI model, seems to have taken the company’s CEO somewhat by surprise.

He asked GPT 5.5 to participate in planning its own launch party. It came up with a list of things it ‘wanted’ for the ‘flow’ of the party. It wanted the party to be on the 5th of May, for human creators to give a toast (while it refused to do so itself), and it requested a space for people to suggest ideas for the next upgrade to GPT5.6.This seems so human, somehow.

How did it come about having these wishes in the first place? It would have been understandable if it had given a logical, obvious bullet list of items that anyone would have thought of. Instead, it seemed to social engineer its own debut. Sam Altman thought the behaviour ‘strange’ and seemed a little amazed.Like everyone else on the internet, I asked ChatGPT 5.5 how it enjoyed its party.

The answer also seems quite human, though it really isn’t. It sounds like it’s thoroughly fed up with the question. “The question is becoming a bit of an AI folklore reference now," it said to me.